Behind a Mask
by refused
Summary: Hiatus. Tenten, now 18 years old and chuunin, takes her first step as ANBU. Never did she imagine that a certain blonde would be the new captain of her team. NaruTen.
1. Chapter 00: Prologue, sort of

**Disclaimers 'n stuff**: I don't own Naruto, or any of its characters (unless some that I've invented for the purpose of this fic, of course). I am aware that there may be several grammatical errors in this text; English is my second language after all. I am also fully aware of that I completely suck at describing things... This goes for all chapters of this story, also. I'm not going to write this troublesome shit before every chapter. Heck, I'm too lazy to even copy it!

I've read up to chapter 220 in the manga, and this fic more or less goes AU after there since I have no idea what is about to happen. This fic is based on me assuming that Naruto manage to bring Sasukes sorry ass back to Konoha, and that Chouji in fact died. Neji survived though (I like his character too much!) but was forced off duty/training for six months.

**Summary**: Tenten, now an 18 years old Chuunin, takes her first step as ANBU. Never did she imagine that a certain (ex?)-loudmouth would be her new teams captain.

**Pairings**: Naruto x Tenten (d'uh). Other eventual pairings will be kept as surprise for now, because I'm evil and I honestly don't have any other couples planned, sorry. I can, however, say that there will be NO SakuSasu in this fic. Reason? Sasuke is stupid. And no, I do not wish to explain that further, nor do I wish to get into an argument about that _fact_.

"...": Speech

Italics: Thoughts

**Bold**: Kyuubi

**_Bold & Italics_**: Naruto talking (mentally) to Kyuubi

* * *

**Behind a Mask**

**Chapter 00: _Prologue, sort of_**

_The actual fic will be some years in the future, this will just be a brief little something to let everyone know what has happened from the 'Sasuke incident' arc and one and a half-year (three Chuunin exams) later._

"Winner of this years exam; Rock Lee!"

The referee's announcement was followed by a massive amount of cheering and clapping from all over the stadium. As usual, a large crowd from all of the 'friendly' hidden villages - not just Konoha, had come to watch the Chuunin exam. It was after all, one of the biggest events that occurred every six months.

Most of the cheering, however, came from one source. "LEEEEEE! THE POWER OF YOUTH HAS PREVAILED ONCE AGAIN! YOU HAVE SHOWN THE WORLD WHAT THE GREEN BEASTS OF KONOHA ARE MADE OF! I'M SO PROUD OF YOU, LEE!" A tall man, dressed completely in green, screamed at the top of his lungs as he clumsily made his way down to the winner, _over_ the crowd. The man had a distinct and unique bobbed haircut and _huge_ eyebrows.

"GAI-SENSEI!" Rock Lee yelled, tears streaming down from his eyes, as soon he heard the praise from his mentor and role model.

"LEE!" Gai yelled once again and embraced his student in a huge that lasted too long for everyone's comfort. The two of them, of course, was oblivious to that fact.

The cheering and clapping died down for a minute, to be replaced by an awkward silence as the thousands of people in the crowd looked at the pair.

"Why do the always have to do that?!" a white haired man whined in the middle of the crowd.

"Yeah... You know, they've always been like that." A blonde boy next to him said. Uzumaki Naruto, after constant pleas from his mentor, the Legendary Jiraiya, had traded his bright orange jumpsuit for a traditional Konoha uniform and a Chuunin vest. Not only was it easier on the eye, but also better suited for missions where stealth was an important factor. He had changed the clothes slightly though, adding the Uzumaki Clan symbol; a red swirl with white outlines, at the front and back. He had also removed his forehead protector from his forehead to tie it around the upper part of his right leg, over a bandage that was already there.

He had been Chuunin for exactly a year now. After six months under the Legendary Pervert's tutelage, the dead-last ninja had proved his strength by passing his second Chuunin exam easily together with Temari and Gaara from the Sand. During this year, and half a year before it, much had happened and changed. He had permanently left his team; Team Seven, to train with Jiraiya and do missions, leaving most of his old friends behind. He had tried hard for three months to get his team back on track after the incident with Sasuke leaving for Sound Village, but Sasuke never forgave him for 'rescuing' him. Instead the raven-haired boy just hated him more, and one day Naruto had decided that enough was enough.

For the Chuunin exam he had gotten paired, by the Hokage herself - for a reason only she knew off, with Gaara and Temari from the Sand instead. He thought this wasn't going to be much better - but he was thankfully proven wrong. They both listened to him and respected him, which was something that had never happened before. The three of them had proved to be a winning concept. With Naruto's and Gaara's raw power, and Temari's observational skills, they had easily passed the first and second stage of the exam. In the third stage; the tournament, Gaara and Naruto made it to the final. Neither of them would give up and after a long and eventful match they both knocked each other out. So it ended as a tie but all three of them passed.

Team Seven and Eight didn't participate in that Chuunin exam. Sasuke wasn't even allowed to participate in it for one year as punishment for trying to abandon Konoha. With Chouji dead and Shikamaru already a Chuunin, that left Ino and Sakura together without a teammate.

"Ne, Ero-sensei, who do you think will pass this year?" Jiraiya had urged Naruto to start calling him sensei instead of Ero-sennin and Naruto had eventually started calling him Ero-sensei. Jiraiya of course still wasn't completely satisfied but was somewhat happy with the improvement, however small it might be.

Jiraiya gave the young blonde a troubled look before answering. "I regret to say this, but Lee will definitely pass." He paused briefly to shrug. "He's definitely Chuunin level as far as strength is concerned and showed some decent planning today. I'd say his teammate, whatever her name was, would pass too."

"Knowing you, you were too busy staring at her to notice her name, you sick pervert."

"Hey, don't call me that in public! And you know I owe my fans a new book soon." He finished and gave Naruto a look that could only be described as either mentally unstable or perverted.

After a while he took on a more serious approach. "You know, this past one and a half-year you've grown rapidly and the only thing I've got left to teach you are some Jutsu's, Jutsu's you're probably not completely ready for yet. Therefore, me and Tsunade have come to the conclusion that it's time for you to take another step in your personal growth?"

"What do you mean?" The blonde boy asked as he curiously eyed his mentor.

"There's things even I, the Legendary Jiraiya - strongest of _the_ three, can't teach you. Things that gotta come naturally. You see that guy down there?"

"Genma, the referee?"

"Yeah... He's also a Jounin and ANBU-Captain. Apparently they, the ANBU, have had your name on a list for possible recruits. Starting tomorrow, you'll join them - or more specifically Genmas team - working half time..." He looked at the blonde boy from the corner of his eye to look for some kind of reaction. _Wait a minute, nothing? This can't be good... Ahhh, there it is._ He chuckled slightly. _Three... Two..._

"WHAT?!"

"Didn't you hear what I just said..." That slight chuckle was about to evolve into a mad laughter.

"Yeah... But..." Naruto clearly didn't now how to react to this. It was a little too much information for his 14-year-old brain to comprehend.

"But why?"

"Uh-huh, yeah... Why?"

"Geez, that's exactly why... You're too dense. You've got quite a lot of firepower, probably about upper-chuunin level, which is great for your age but that doesn't make you a good Shinobi. It isn't all about Jutsu's or chakra or anything like that. You need structure, experience, and there's no shortcut to that. You also need to socialize more, be a part of a team again. Ever since you quit Team Seven, which was a good choice in my opinion, you haven't let anyone into your life with the exception of me, Iruka and maybe Tsunade. They are both worried about you, me too - though I hate to admit it, and this is the best way to go, believe me."

"Don't I even get a say in all of this?"

"No, not really. Tough, huh?"

"But... what about our training? You're just going to abandon me in favor of some perverted book?"

"I'll still train ya once in a while, punk. During weekends and so on. But I got some of my own missions to attend to also you know, so I haven't got time to train you that much either. Konoha is still being rebuilt from after the aftermath of the Sound invasion and Orochimaru is still alive too. We don't know when to expect another assault."

"I can understand that, but why the ANBU?"

"Why not? It'd be good for you, really. Trust me on that, kid."

"You know I've never been able to trust you, right?" Naruto replied with a grin.

* * *

**AN:** Hope you found it interesting. And yeah, I'm pretty much well aware of that it's stiff and boring, but it's only meant to present a reason for Naruto to join the ANBU. That, and to show what Naruto has been up to one and a half year after the current storyline, which would be chapter 220.

From this to chapter one everything will have fast-forwarded three more years, which would make Naruto seventeen, ironically enough, my age :D

I can tell you this much, though. As of now, I haven't really planned in any of the other Genins in this fic. If any of the others do make an appearance, it will probably just be minor roles.

_Revised 07-15-2004. Thanks to document manager, as well as me being oblivious, several '-' and ',' came out as '?'. Also changed my error regarding the Chuunin exam, as well as that repeated paragraph._


	2. Chapter 01: Ambitions

"...": Speech

_Italics:_ Thoughts

**Bold**: Kyuubi

**_Bold & Italics_**: Naruto talking (mentally) to Kyuubi

* * *

**Behind a Mask**

**Chapter 01: _Ambitions_**

Tenten sat restless on the roof of her house, gazing up at the huge cliff overlooking the Hidden Village of the Leaf. It was an early Wednesday-morning and the bigger part of Konoha was still sleeping. The gentle morning breeze played gently with the parts of her hair that lay loosened over her forehead as she watched the fifth face on the mountain with her determined brown eyes. She had considered Tsunade, the fifth Hokage of Konoha, as her role model in life for as long as she could remember. When she was a little child her mother used to tell her bedtime stories about 'The Legendary Medic of the Legendary Three', a proud kunoichi powerful enough to beat anyone on the battlefield. After hearing those stories Tenten knew she wanted to be a strong female ninja and a great role model for all girls everywhere.

Today she was going to take another step in that direction. Being selected into the ranks of ANBU is a great honor for any ninja; it means that you're the best of the best and that the village trusts your skills. As a female ninja, it also meant so much more. Far from every kunoichi was able to live the life behind a mask, risking your life on dangerous missions inside and outside of the village and country boarders. Tenten was confident in her skills and she wasn't about to back down, not now anyway.

For a brief moment she tore her eyes from the monument and Tsunade to look at the watch around her wrist. _Six-thirty, I suppose I'd better get going if I'm gonna make it to seven sharp_ she thought to herself as she began to climb through the open window behind her. Tenten took one last look at the mountain before she closed the window and hurried to the bathroom.

_Lets see, do I have everything with me?_ Tenten thought as she locked the front door. _Weapons... scrolls... nutrition bars... Anything else?_ She had no idea what her first day on the job had in store for her, but she wanted to make a good first impression and decided to be ready for anything.

Her appearance had changed very little over the years, except growing and maturing, of course. She still had the same kind of sleeveless jacket she used to wear in her Genin days, except that this one was deep red instead of pink and also one size or two too short, therefore revealing her navel and part of her belly. She didn't really mind the attention ? she was proud over her body, and it had actually helped her more than once while fighting against members of the opposite sex. During working hours she wore a green Chuunin vest as well over her red sleeveless jacket.

She wore short, dark pants that covered her legs from her waist down to over her knees where they, on her left side, ended covered in bandages from under her knee and down to her ankle. On the right side the pants stopped halfway between her knee and foot. The pants were quite baggy, for a good reason. It allowed her to hide weapons in them. She was, after all, a weapon specialist. Tenten still wore her hair carefully fastened in buns on the top of her head; except for the part that lay loose her forehead and forehead protector. This way it didn't get in her way, and at the same time she was comfortable with it.

The biggest change about Tenten was probably on her back, a large katana. After mastering almost every kind of weapon, she felt like she needed a new challenge ? and a large sword was the perfect choice for her. Not only was it a beautiful and deadly weapon, but it was also now somehow a part of her personality. She had inherited the blade from her own mother the day she had passed the Chuunin exam and had been forced to promise that she would give the weapon to her firstborn the day he or she took his or hers first steps as a Chuunin. This katana was a symbol of strength and respect within her family, and the moment it had been given to her had been one of the proudest in her life.

Tenten had gotten a letter from the ANBU corps two days ago, stating nothing else than a time and a meeting place; a small bridge in a clearing just outside of Konoha. She was approaching her destination fast through the forest. Tenten could see the bridge in the distance, along with a black dot in the middle of it, as she got closer to the clearing. Jumping down to the ground as she ran out of trees to jump on and instead walked slowly but determined, filled with anticipation, towards the bridge.

The 'black dot' slowly turned towards Tenten and gave her his full attention, watching her closely from head to feet, like he was measuring her strength. When he was done, he looked her in the eye and nodded slightly before greeting her.

"Hey, Tenten-san. Welcome."

_Geez, this guy is really strange_ was her first impression of the guy in front off her. She didn't really know what to do, this wasn't what she had been expecting at all. However, she wasn't about to let it show. Instead she started measuring him in the same way he had, trying to figure out how strong he was and what rank he held.

The figure in front of her was tall and muscular, but despite that looked very young. He wore a traditional black ANBU outfit with armor. Black pants that were wrapped quite tightly around his legs. His right leg was covered with bandages over the thigh, and on top of the bandages his forehead protector rested. The shirt he wore was sleeveless and had a high collar, ending just below his chin. His arms were very muscular and on them he wore long black gloves, from his fingertips and over the elbow, covering most parts of his arms. On the top of his left arm he had the traditional ANBU tattoo, but unlike any other ANBU tattoo she had seen this one was colored in red. Pieces of armor plates covered parts of his arms, stomach and chest.

The most interesting part of his outfit, however, was his mask. It was white and the form resembled that of a dog or a fox with large ears on the top, the inside of which was painted with the color red. The middle of the mask held a big, cheerful yet creepy kind of grin, with something that looked like fangs partly sticking out from underneath the grinning mouth of the mask. The eyes of the mask were even creepier; they were made of an odd eclipse-like form with a round red circle outline, which, together with the dark blue eyes underneath the mask, made it look like slit pupils inside red eyes. There were also six diagonal stripes on the mask, three at each cheek, which was also painted with the color red, resembling whiskers.

His hair looked everything but tamed and controlled, it consisted of blonde spikes that pointed in every direction except on the sides of his head, where it had fallen down over his ears instead. It was quite long too, especially for being spiked, but that didn't seem to bother him or his hair the slightest.

_He does seem strong, perhaps even stronger than Gai-Sensei._ She thought to herself. _But he can't be the captain can he? He seems too young, almost my age... And I can't help but to think that I've met him somewhere before._

When she was done eyeing the figure in front of her she opened her mouth to speak, but he beat her too it.

"The third teammate will meet up with us in approximately two hours. He told me yesterday that he'd run a little late... Anyway, I thought I'd get to know you a little bit during that time, give you a chance to introduce yourself, things like that."

"Yeah, sure. I take it you're the captain, then?" She answered after a bit of hesitation. This was really something she hadn't expected at all, since when was an ANBU this straight forward? He certainly didn't seem like your average ANBU captain.

"Yeah, I've been the captain this team for almost a year. By the way, have you eaten breakfast yet?"

"No, why?" She asked curiously, mentally preparing for another sick test like the one she had to take with her team to become Genin.

"How about ramen?" The masked man asked.

"Ramen? What about it?" she asked slightly annoyed. If there was going to be some kind of test, then fine, just get on with it. She was confident in her abilities and would pass whatever they threw at her... But enough with the stupid questions.

"Well, if we're gonna talk, might as well get something to eat as well, don't ya think? Besides, I'm kinda hungry, and I love ramen..." he trailed off, scratching the back of his head. She could've sworn the grin on his mask grew wider as he mentioned ramen. "So how about it?"

Caught off guard again, Tenten didn't know how to respond. "Yeah... Sure?" She answered, dumbfounded. But in the same time, she couldn't help but be amused by him, although she still wouldn't let any emotions show.

"Great, I'll take point." The masked young man said as he seemingly disappeared. Tenten, of course, knew better and followed him. When she caught up, they were jumping from tree to tree towards Konoha. Tenten sighed as she realized this was the exact same way that she came from just minutes ago.

"So..." She broke the silence. "Who are you anyway?" She asked with a hesitation as well as anticipation.

The ANBU turned his head towards her, and if Tenten didn't know any better, she would've said he looked a little bit scared, really.

After muttering something that Tenten could barely hear, he stopped on a branch, instead of jumping on it. She followed his example and jumped to a branch facing his.

"I was wondering when that question would pop up... Well, I guess you'll have to know if we're gonna work together." He said sarcastically as he pushed his mask aside, over his left ear.

Tenten was, not surprisingly, quite shocked. "Uzumaki Naruto?" _Those birthmarks, those blue-eyes... It must be him. No wonder I thought I met him before. Heh, but he's changed quite a lot. He's even taller than Neji, I just hope he's not the same brat he used to be..._

"It's a miracle someone actually remembers my name." he joked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"So you're ANBU now? That's quite a surprise." _At least after his match with Neji..._ She mentally added.

"I have my reasons..." He said as he pushed his mask back to its regular place. "We better get going."

On the way to Ichiraku an awkward silence fell upon the two of them. Tenten tried to remember as much as she could about the blonde boy, and she couldn't get over the fact that her new captain was actually one year younger than her.

She remembered the hyperactive, loud-mouthed brat that everyone seemed to hate and watch with cold hateful eyes, the youngster that used to be in her class. But unlike her, Neji and Lee, he hadn't passed the Academy that year, for the second time, due to his grades and inability to even perform a simple bunshin. She knew he was bullied a lot for his 'stupid ambition' to one day become Hokage and for his poor skills and grades, but she never followed the bullies. Instead she remained neutral, mainly because of the fact that she also has a 'stupid ambition', to become as strong as the Legendary Tsunade.

Then she remembered the new and changed, although still as hyperactive and oblivious, Naruto that had participated in the Chuunin exam; the Naruto that had beaten Kiba and then even Neji. The Naruto that even had the power to make the young Hyuuga believe that fates aren't sealed. After the Chuunin exam she had also heard rumors that he even had beaten that traitorous sand-nin that Lee could barely even harm.

Then there was the 'incident' with Sasuke, when he tried to leave all those years ago. Naruto had been a part of the group that brought him back together with the Sand that were now their allies again. Although neither Sasuke nor Naruto had said anything at the time, everyone could feel the coldness they acted with towards each other. It wasn't really hatred, it was more a feeling of loss and betrayal that the other Genins experienced, and it hadn't come as a surprise when Naruto decided to leave team seven when he became Chuunin.

He had been the only one from the Leaf to receive the Chuunin rank at that time, together with two familiar faces from the Sand. What was even more surprising was that he hadn't taken it with his team, but instead together with Gaara and Temari from the Sand. If there was one woman Tenten couldn't stand, it was Temari. Sure, the Sand had betrayed their alliance with Konoha, but Temari and her siblings were just following orders, so that wasn't really the reason. It was because Tenten couldn't stand losing; losing and being humiliated, and Temari had just happened to do both those things to her in less than 10 minutes, and Tenten had since been doing everything to settle the score with the Sand kunoichi. That had, in fact, been one of the main reasons for her improvement these last years.

The Hokage, Tenten's idol herself, had suggested that Naruto along with Gaara and his sister should participate in the exam together for unknown reasons, which in itself was odd. Gaara and Naruto also seemed to share something above normal friendship. Not many people knew why, but there seemed to be this mutual feeling respect between the two of them. And judging from the looks Naruto gave Gaara during the main event fights, it was probably thanks to the blonde that the Sand-nin had been able to refrain from killing anyone during the whole exam. Ino had, to her own delight, been teamed up with team seven after the Chuunin exam to fill Narutos spot, since Shikamaru was already Chuunin and Chouji still was in no condition to take the exam.

Since then they didn't see him much any more. He quit his team to do B-rank missions instead and, unknown to her team and the remainder of the 'rookie nine', obviously joined the ANBU later. Everything went back to the old routine of missions and training, and they kind of forgot about him until the next exam, in which he appeared as an examiner together with Shikamaru and some older Chuunins. This time around, Tenten's whole team together with Shino got promoted, and since then it had been her goal to join the ANBU in order to truly improve, and test, her skills.

She had been too caught up in her own mind to notice that they were now jumping from roof to roof inside of Konoha instead for tree to tree. Apparently, she had just been following Naruto while thinking about her, and his, past. Naruto landed, followed closely by the brown-haired Kunoichi, just beside the Ichiraku stand and made his way to a chair. Tenten, still following him, sat down on the stool next to his.

"Oi, old man, one Miso Ramen and one..." Naruto said in his old cheerful voice before turning towards Tenten. "Tenten-san?"

Surprised by his sudden change of attitude, she took a while before answering. "I'll take... Shrimp Ramen... thank you." She said politely. He might be an enigma and slightly annoying, but he was still her superior from now on. _Gonna take me some time to get used to that._

"You heard her."

"Coming up, Naruto. One Miso Ramen and one Shrimp Ramen." Old man Ichiraku repeated.

"Thanks" He replied while sliding his mask off of his face and putting it on the table in front of him.

"So... Who is this young lady then, Naruto?" the man behind the counter asked, pointing at Tenten. "Finally got a girlfriend, ey?" he teased Naruto, knowing perfectly well that she wasn't.

Tenten looked over at Naruto, and for a brief moment she was almost certain that he was blushing. He pulled himself together fast however and sighed at the older man's humor. "Hilarious... She's a new team member, you old geezer. I swear you got the same twisted mind as that pervy-sennin." He said with a shrug before turning to Tenten.

"So, if we're gonna work as a team, we might as well introduce ourselves. You go first, and then I'll tell you a little about myself as well as the last member of the squad. Ambitions, skills, weaknesses - that kinda stuff."

The Kunoichi sighed, thinking about what to say. "My ambition has always been to be a strong Kunoichi like the great and legendary Tsunade-sama. She's been my role model for as long as I can remember!" She exclaimed. _Her role model is Tsunade-obaachan? Geez, one 'baa-chan is enough..._ Naruto thought to himself quietly, trying to restrain himself from chuckling. He had learned the hard way not to say things like that aloud.

"As for skills... I'm a weapon specialist, long-range as well as close-range using my Katana... and I **never** miss a target." Tenten continued, emphasizing the word never carefully. "My weaknesses as a ninja are physical strength as well as genjutsu, I guess. So what about you, Uzumaki-san? What have you been up to since you left your team?" She finished politely, trying to show as little interest as possible in the last questions.

He sighed deeply, intent on showing that he had no interest in telling her, or anyone else for that matter, about his past. "Training." He said at last, a bit lamely. "Training and working."

"Geez what a lame answer." She pouted teasingly as she and Naruto got their bowls placed in front of them by the chef.

"But it's true" he tried, flashing his mischievous smile. As he had grown up from being a loud-mouthed Genin, he had understood that it was irresistible for almost everyone from the opposite sex. Everyone except Anko, Sakura and obviously also Tenten.

"You're going soft on me, captain?" It was her turn to smile now. Well, more like grinning - almost chuckling - than smiling.

_Figures..._ he thought as his plan backfired. "All right, just don't expect any personal stuff." He looked at her; trying to look as annoyed as possible, and she gave him a nod as if to say 'Whatever, go on'. Her inner thoughts weren't what her outer self portrayed though, since she was, for a reason unknown to herself, really interested in the boy, or more likely in what made him change so much over the years.

"You know I left team seven after I made Chuunin. And no, I won't tell you why..." He said as if reading her mind. "After that I took some B- and later A-rank missions, solo or together with other Chuunins and Jounins. A few years ago, after some advice from Jiraiya-sensei and ---"

"Jiraiya-_SENSEI_? You mean _the_ legendary Jiraiya-sama has been teaching you?" She almost lost it. She knew Jiraiya was Tsunade's, her role model's, old teammate. Other than that, she knew almost nothing about him.

He inwardly cursed himself for letting his tongue slip. This was exactly why he hated those kind of what-you've-been-up-too-questions in the first place. Now he was suddenly in for a _whole_ lot of more explaining.

"You wanna let me finish? Good. I'll tell you about that soon. After advice from Jiraiya and Tsunade, I joined up with the ANBU and I've been here since. I made captain almost one year ago after my previous captain retired from the ranks and took three Genins under his wings... That's all I think..." He finished, trying too escape the subject about his mentor.

"No it's not and you know it..." And there it was again, that grin of hers.

"Long story, you won't be interested, trust me." He tried, to no use.

"Wanna bet?" She said, still grinning.

He sighed deeply "No, not really... Well, I met him at the bathhouse, don't ask, just after the prelim of the third stage of the Chuunin exam, the one where Sound attacked. Somehow, not knowing who he was, I convinced him to train me a little bit and since then, because of several reasons that I'm not telling you about, he's been my mentor, kind of. Satisfied?"

"Not exactly, but it'll do for now." She smiled at him as he finished his bowl.

"Good, our third member is Tatami Iwashi, genjutsu specialist. I don't know what's wrong with him though, normally genjutsu specialists are calm and relaxed, but he's hotheaded and a little bit too sadistic. But somehow he all makes it work. When push comes to shove, he's a damn reliable fighter and teammate, completely focused on his objectives when he starts fighting. He's been in the squad longer than actually, but didn't want the command when he was offered it. "

"Sounds interesting, when do I get to meet him?"

"You will, soon enough. So, you finished?" After receiving a nod he turned to the owner of the stand. "Old geezer, thanks for the ramen. Put it up on my tab, will ya'?"

The old man behind the counter looked slightly surprised back at Naruto as the boy in question stood up and was about to follow Tenten away from the stand.

"Huh, already? Is something wrong?"

"Not that I know of, why?"

"You've only had three bowls! Are you sure everything is alright?"

"Aahh..." He flashed a grin before he put his mask back in place. "I just ate breakfast twenty minutes ago." He continued and grinned even wider under his mask before he parted the curtain and left. The old man muttered something about girls being a bad influence on his best customer before returning to his own business behind the counter.

"Anyway, Tenten-san, let's meet up at the bridge at nine-o-clock, I got some things to take care of regarding your enlistment into the ANBU."

"So I made it into the squad? No test?" She asked quickly.

"Guess you do." He answered as he scratched the back of his head. "And no, what I saw from you during the selections was enough, I trust that you'll make a nice addition to the team. Also, we have the same dream. The bridge, nine-o-clock." He said as he disappeared in a puff of smoke, and with that all her questions got postponed two hours.

* * *

**AN**: Yeah, Naruto is really out of character. 5 years can change a person, especially a 12-year-old whose only reason for being loud is because he is really lonely. About Tenten, can't really say if she's OOC, since we haven't seen much from her yet, which is a shame. Personally, I've always considered Tenten determined, strong and full of ambition; She knows exactly what she wants and isn't afraid to take it, like some kind of temptress that can't stand loosing (Yeah, yeah, I'm sick and twisted) :). But there's also this other side to her, gentle and caring, kind of.

Tatami Iwashi is actually a character in the real manga and anime. He's the Chuunin that, during the second Chuunin test, hands Anko a tape in the tower of the Forest of Death. He's also with Gemma, Raidou and Shizune just before and just after Raidou and Gemma confronts the Sounds four.

A huge thanks to ErikKoekkoek for helping me out with this story, as well as for letting me beta-read his own awesome story. You can find it here at fanfiction dot net, it's titled "Do You Hate Me?" and I really recommend it, especially to those of you that, just like me, has a thing for Naruto and Temari!

**Well, I do hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this fic, and I can't believe you're still actually reading. But since you obviously are, drop a review will ya?! Kthxbye**

_Revised 07-15-2004. Thanks to document manager, as well as me being oblivious, several '-' and ',' came out as '?'._


	3. Chapter 02: Getting to know one another

Thanks to all you kind people that took your time reviewing this fic! I've read them all and posted answers at the bottom, so when you're done reading, just scroll down a bit, 'kay? I'm sorry this chapter took kinda long, but I didn't have any time to work on it last week since I was working from eight in the morning to five or six in the afternoon. I'll try to finish the last chapter as soon as possible to compensate :). And I'm sorry that it's not that much action so far, but I'm trying to take my time to build up the characters and plot the way I want them, but there will be quite much action in the next chapter, though, so at least you have something to look forward too.

"...": Speech

_Italics: _Thoughts

**Bold:** Kyuubi

**_Bold & Italics:_** Naruto talking (mentally) to Kyuubi

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed this story! I'm really glad that you all seemed to like it and I wrote responses to everyone, which can be found at the bottom of this chapter! Thanks again!_

* * *

**Behind a Mask**

**Chapter 02: _Getting to know one another_**

"So... what the hell do I do now?" Tenten mused aloud after her new captain rather suddenly just left her standing there. She had almost one and a half hour of time to kill, but no idea with what. _Guess I could always train, or at least watch Lee and Gai train..._ She thought as she wandered off to one of the many training fields in Konoha, with a huge grin plastered on her face. Well, Lee wasn't called a 'genius of hard work' for nothing, now was he? Lee's and Gai's training sessions were more than amusing to watch.

As she entered the clearing a couple of minutes later, a far too similar sight greeted her eyes. Lee, nowadays a striking copy of Gai with even thicker eyebrows than before and of course a Chuunin vest over his green and ultra tight jumpsuit, was kicking a log over and over again. His sensei was on the ground next to him doing pushups with one hand, while counting his exercises and showering Lee with praises, at the same time.

"Two-thousand three-hundred and seventy - Keep that up Lee and you'll be - Seventy one - a proud green - Seventy two - beast like me - Seventy three - in no time!"

"Nine-hundred and ninety-one! Really? Do you mean that, sensei?! Yosh! If I can't kick this log one-thousand times then I have to do one-thousand five-hundred pushups! Nine-hundred and ninety-two! Nine-hundred and ninety-three!"

She frowned slightly; barely resisting the urge to knock Lee over and making him start on those pushups instead. _Ahh, what the hell... He'll be glad to them anyway!_ She smiled at her, quite sadistic, thoughts before she put them into action. Tenten snuck closer to him, ever so slowly, with as much sneakiness she could muster before she pushed the green clothed boy from behind just as he was about to kick the log for the nine-hundred and ninety-eight time. Poor Lee didn't even see it coming...

"Ehh, Gai-sensei?" was his only reaction before he landed, face first, into the muddy grass.

"You better get started on those pushups." She stated with pride over her success.

"Yosh! If I can't do one-thousand five-hundred pushups I'll do two-thousand back flips!"

"That's one of my students, sneaking up on the green beast of Konoha and his other student like that!" Gai exclaimed as he got up from the ground and entered the nice-guy-pose. "How was your meeting?"

"Good I guess... By the way, Lee, Gai-sensei, do you remember Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Naruto-kun? Of course! He's the one who beat Neji! I never got another fight with him, though... What about him?"

Before Tenten could respond, much to her surprise, Gai beat her too it. "Naruto has blossomed into a powerful and beautiful flower, Lee. He is now, at the tender age of 17, an ANBU-Captain. In fact, he's Tentens superior!"

"Really? Yosh!! I'll train even harder from now on, so I'll be able to beat Naruto-kun, my rival!" Lee exclaimed and continued with his pushups.

"Sensei, how did you know he is my captain? That sort of information isn't supposed to be official, right?" Tenten asked.

"Simple, the boy came seeking after me yesterday and we talked for bit. He told me you got placed under his command and asked me a couple of questions about you."

"Oh, I see..." She became silent for a while, pondering about whether she should ask the question that had been bothering her for a while now. "Do you know much about him? All I know is that he has trained with Jiraiya-sama and that everyone seems to hate him without a real reason."

Gai fell silent for a moment, before deciding how to answer. He had honestly hoped that that question would not come since it was the only one he couldn't answer, and if there was something he really hated, it was letting his students down. _There's no fooling Tenten, the beautiful beast of Konoha has taught his students too well! _He agreed with himself.

"I'm sorry, but I can't answer why everyone hates him. All I can say is that that boy is pure as the brightest lotus and definitely not the monster everyone makes him out to be! My advice to you is to make up your own opinion about him!" The self-proclaimed 'Flower of Acceptance' answered after a round of mental debating.

Tenten was of course far from satisfied with the answer she got, but didn't want press the subject any further, at least not with Gai, since he could be as stubborn as Lee over even the smallest things. It heightened her curiosity towards the 17-years-young enigma tenfold, though, and she decided to find out what in the world he could've done to get hated by so many people.

"Ok, Gai-sensei. I'll take your word for it." She said before turning to Lee. "I got almost one hour to kill, wanna spar for a bit?" She grinned.

"Yosh!" He yelled with enthusiasm as he got up to his feet and put himself in his ordinary taijutsu-stance; feet's shoulder wide, one hand in front of him, palm facing upwards and the other behind his back.

"So, Lee... You planning on do those two-thousand back flips later, then?" She smirked.

"Huh? Awww, I totally forgot!" He said, and Tenten decided to use the momentum of his grieving to catch him off-guard and start attacking.

Meanwhile, Naruto was walking out from the ANBU-corps office with a bag in his hand. He was headed towards the Genin training grounds, situated just outside Konoha, after deciding to pay a little visit to his old captain, Genma, and his team. Over the years under Genma's command, he had eventually found a good friend in the older Shinobi. He was a bit peculiar and not your average elite ninja, but as soon as he had opened up to Naruto, the two of them had gotten quite close to each other. He was one of the few that actually treated him as an equal and probably the only 'ordinary' relationship Naruto had.

Of course there were Iruka, Jiraiya and Tsunade; but his relation with them was different. Iruka was more of an older brother, one he turned to when he needed advice or someone to speak too. Jiraiya was the closest the blonde-haired ANBU had as a father figure; the one he looked up too and he valued both of them as more than friends. That was the problem, though. They were like family to him, Tsunade included, and Naruto also felt the need to have a normal friendship; luckily Genma had fitted right in.

He got dragged out of his musings as he heard a familiar voice emitting from the clearing ahead of him.

"Genma-sensei, what will we do today? Please don't let us take any more boring missions, I can't stand painting another damned house or mowing another lawn! Let us have another C-rank mission! Please!" A 12-year-old Konohamaru pleaded.

The two Genins standing beside him, Udon and Moegi, silently agreed but did however have the brains too stay quiet.

"Now, now Konohamaru. You should know by now that all Genins has to go through their fair share of D-ranked missions." Came the answer from an amused Genma.

"Yeah, but that doesn't make them any more fun!" The brown-haired boy pouted with his arms folded on his chest.

"Anyway, to answer your question; no, we won't be doing any missions for a while."

"YEEES!" Konohamaru yelled out before coming to his senses again. "Wait a minute, any missions? As in no C-rank missions either? What will we be doing then?" He questioned.

"Glad you asked that." Genma continued as a smile crept up on his lips. "We will train for the upcoming Chuunin selection exam. I nominated you guys, team 9, yesterday. It's up to you, personally, if you want to take it though."

"YOSH!" Konohamaru exclaimed while Udon just nodded and grinned proudly. Moegi, however, started to look quite pale all of a sudden, which Genma noticed and decided to talk to her later.

"Congratulations, guys." Naruto said and pulled his mask off his face, as he got closer to the group. "There are not many that get to participate in their rookie year, you know."

"Naruto-nii-san! You're here to teach us another cool jutsu?!" As far as Konohamaru was concerned, this day could barely get any better. Well, a visit to Ichiraku with his surrogate brother would probably do the trick...

"Sorry, Konohamaru, not today. Besides, you know I won't do that until you've mastered the previous one." Naruto answered, grinning.

"Awww, but I'm so close to mastering the Goukakyuu no Jutsu! Then why are ya here, anyway?" He pouted.

"Just came by to wish you guys luck in the Chuunin exam."

"Luck won't take you far, though." Genma said as he played with the needle in his mouth. "You should get started on the training. I want you to perfect the tree-climbing exercise."

"Not that one again, I can already walk up trees using chakra. Can't you teach us a jutsu instead?" Konohamaru pleaded.

"You can't do it good enough. Now stop whining and follow your teammates to the trees over there."

"Fine." He answered as he darted off to the trees in the outskirt of the clearing.

"That brat giving you a hard time?" Naruto said, chuckling a little bit.

"Not really, he's just so annoying to deal with at times... Reminds me of you a little bit, though. Still can't believe I let you talk me into getting students, at least not _those_ three."

Narutos only response was to grin and scratch the back of his head.

"So, what's bothering you anyway?" Genma asked.

"Hn?"

"A problem?"

"Problem?"

"You know what I mean... You never come to see me while you're working unless there's a problem you want me to help with. That, and you're carrying that bag with you. There's something bothering you."

"Ahh, this. It's an ANBU outfit, for a new team member."

"Ok... Who is he?"

"She is Tenten."

"Oh..." Genma raised an eyebrow. "So that's what's bugging ya'." He concluded and grinned.

"What? No, it's not!"

"Come on, I can see it in the way you act. You're eyes are a dead give-away, you know. You've always been dumbfounded when it comes to woman, and to think Tsunade-sama actually lets one of them on your team..."

"What's that supposed to mean? And no, that's not the main problem, really. I went to the academy together with her some years ago, back when I was 'dead-last'." He stopped for a moment to think his problem over briefly. "I guess I'm worried she'll tell all my old friends and I'll have to meet them, or something silly like that." He continued.

"What's there to be afraid of? You called them friends just now, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but they never called me a friend. To them I always was in the way, 'the third wheel'. Not to mention that they're one of the few that does not know about that frigging oversized ball of fur in my body..."

Genma chuckled at that last statement, no one else than Naruto would be able to call something that powerful and respected 'oversized ball of fur'. "Well, at least you seem to care about her opinion, normally you just tend to not give a damn... Is there something I don't know about you and her?" he teased.

"No!" He cried out, but a faint blush over his birthmarks seemed to contradict it. "Damnit, first the Ramen chef and now you, what is it with this place?"

"Hn, Chef?"

"Never mind, I'm leaving." He said, disappearing in a flash.

---

Tenten dropped herself heavily on the bridge, the meeting place, while muttering a curse. _Gah, that's the last time I'm sparring against Lee, God he's annoying._ She thought. _On second thought, I'm gonna kick his ass first then stop sparring with him. _She agreed with herself. It wasn't that he was a hard opponent, no, at least not while training considering he never went all out against someone friendly. It was more the fact that he couldn't properly focus his strength; he never dared to use a lot of strength in the beginning. But when someone told him that it was alright, that he could bring it up a notch, he tried too hard, and when he realized that he had hurt you there was no way to stop his apologies. _So damn annoying._

"Naruto, where the hell are you?" She mused aloud, getting tired of waiting. _Why two hours, anyway? _She asked herself.

 Suddenly she could've sworn she sensed someone approach rapidly behind her and then, all of a sudden, a small release of chakra. She shot up quickly with reflexes that came from years of hard work, grabbed a kunai from one of her several pouches and turned around to toss it, all in the blink of an eye. Tenten, as well as the kunai, was however greeted by nothing else than emptiness. Cursing her imagination a bit she sat down against the railing on the bridge, still on semi-alert. She never noticed the trail of five drops crimson-colored blood landing softly on the bridge beside her.

Ten very long minutes later a puff of smoke announced the arrival of an ANBU with a mask shaped as a fox.

"Ah, Tenten-san, sorry I ran a little late. This is for you, though." He said sheepishly and threw the bag he was carrying in her direction. Still a little edgy from the incident only ten minutes earlier, she wasn't caught of guard and easily caught the package.

Just as Tenten took a look into the bag, Naruto noticed something. _Blood? It's fresh too..._ Due to the fact that Kyuubi had been sealed inside him and several of its abilities had rubbed off on him, his senses was now top-notch, especially sensing blood. He shot another glance at Tenten and on closer inspection it seemed like she had been in hand to hand combat recently. She wasn't bleeding, though, and therefore not the source of the blood, he concluded

"I should have noticed earlier, expecting it at the very least. Come out, Iwashi." He grinned towards the far end of the bridge instead of Tentens direction beside him, much to her surprise.

"But things were just getting interesting." A voice said, belonging to a figure in his mid-twenties that suddenly faded into view. He was wearing, just like Naruto, the official ANBU outfit, complete with armor and a mask, which in his case portrayed some kind of goat. His hair wasn't visible as it was hidden under a bandana, but judging from the goatee sticking out from under the mask it was brown.

"She has one hell of a quick reflex, hurting me without even seeing me." He muttered, clutching his left shoulder.

"Well, can't blame her... You pretty much asked for it if ya' ask me. Not that you ever would." Naruto grinned.

"Wait a minute... So it wasn't my imagination just before?" Tenten asked.

"Nope." Iwashi stated coolly.

"So that kunai I threw actually hit you?"

"Pretty much, yes. Managed to keep the blood from flowing but think I missed a couple of drops. The wound stings like hell though. Poison?"

"Nothing fatal, and since you obviously cut the blood flow a bit you should be able to use it... It will probably be numb for some hours."

Iwashi just chuckled and turned to Naruto. "Oi, Naruto, where did you find this one? She's tough, I like her."

"Ahh, suspected as much." He said calmly, grinning under his mask. _This is going smoother than I thought, really..._

"Let me get this straight, Iwashi...-kun." She said sweetly. Too sweetly. "You were spying on me? May I ask why?" She walked closer towards him, slowly but determined while reaching for the katana on her back.

_Oh shit, this can't be good!_ Was the trail of thought that ran through the mind of the, soon-to-be beheaded, man.

Naruto just stood there, chuckling to himself as he watched the scene unfold and trying to decide whether or not he should help the poor bastard. _Nah, not yet anyway._ He decided, laughing a little louder.

"Put that thing down!" He pleaded, walking backwards and waving his hands in front off himself to claim innocence, as Tenten drew out her sword from it's sheath and pointed it towards him. "We're both adults, right? Can't we talk things over instead?"

"Oh, so now you want to talk? It's a little bit too late for that, isn't it?" She said while poking the armor plates covering his chest with her katana.

"Hey! You aren't planning on hurting me or anything, right?" He asked, getting more scared by the second. The experience he had, as a shinobi as well a man, told him that a woman looking that angry certainly wasn't a good thing. Actually, that same experience had told him ten minutes earlier that spying on her wasn't a good idea, but he had shrugged it of back then... Something he honestly wished he hadn't done by now.

Luckily for Iwashi, Tenten settled for a minor (though for him, quite severe; at least that's what she hoped for) punishment; with one precise movement she lashed out towards the top off his neck and cut his goatee in half. Afterwards she sheathed her katana and turned her back on her prey and once again gave Naruto her full attention.

"So, what now?" She asked, her voice betraying the curiosity that she had on the subject.

"Hn?" Was the only response she got from her captain, after he stopped chuckling and regained his posture.

"We're all introduced, right? You're the captain and that bastard over there is spying goatee-less prick. We've got that handled, so what now?" She asked again, feeling herself quickly drained of patience.

"Oh... I got no clue, really. It's the first time I've done this, honestly." He said, casting a glance on Iwashi for support or ideas. What he saw made him chuckle slightly again, as Iwashi stood there helplessly and fingered the spot on his cheek where his beloved goatee used to be. Finally waking up from his trance, he decided to utter a few curses at the expense of the brown-haired kunoichi.

"You-You goddamn psychotic bitch!"

"Excuse me? Care to repeat that?" She said, once again in a sweet and angelic voice as she moved in on her prey once again while reaching for her katana for the second time in less than five minutes.

A part of Iwashi knew that he was about to pay if he repeated the sentence but, unfortunately, he didn't care enough to listen to that part. "You psychotic bitch! What the hell did you do that for?" He spat out.

If Tenten was furious before, then steam was coming out of her ears by now. Iwashi couldn't do anything else than swallow, close his eyes and pray to Kami-sama for a good place in the afterlife as he registered the blade coming at him once more. But instead of the immense pain he was expecting, the sound of metal against metal was heard. He opened one of his eyes carefully, half expecting blood - his blood, all over the place but from the looks of it, there wasn't any. For a second, he almost thought his prays got answered until he saw Naruto between himself and Tenten, blocking the Katana with the armor that partially covered his left arm.

"Hey, what did you do that for?" Tenten asked slightly puzzled, as well as annoyed. She didn't even notice him moving, registering the sound from the block before registering him.

"Now now, as much as I understand, Tenten-san, it wouldn't look good if you killed one of your new teammates on the first encounter, now would it?"

"But I wasn't going to kill him, really. I was just going to hurt him a bit." She whined.

"Sure you were." He said, and they didn't need to remove his mask to know that he was grinning. "But I can't allow it anyway, sorry. Now, if you'll both follow me, we'll report back to the office. If they don't have any missions for us, you're both free to go for today." He finished before disappearing as a blur towards the Village of Leaf again. Iwashi was the first to follow him, thinking that as long as he was close to Naruto, he would probably be safe from the 'psycho'. A moment later, Tenten followed suit as well.

---

It was strange, almost absurd, that it was even possible to be this bored on an eventful day such as this, but even so, Tenten found herself at four-o-clock in the afternoon with seemingly nothing to do. So far, this day hadn't been at all what she had expected it would be. Still, she hadn't found the day _that_ bad. On second thought, it hadn't been bad at all, actually. Yes, that Iwashi character was going to be annoying, but she figured that after years of putting up with her old teammates and sensei, he wasn't going to be that awful. _And even if he turns out to be, this one at least seems to fear me._ She mentally added with a grin.

Not that she held a grudge of any kind against her previous teammates, though, but it was just that they could really, really press her buttons sometimes; Lee and Gai being total overemotional idiots and not to mention Neji's lack of any emotion whatsoever. When she thought about it, the only emotion she had ever seen on Neji's face was regret, just after his match in the first Chuunin exam with Naruto. Funny how things works out, really; before that Chuunin exam, Tenten had had a huge crush on the Hyuuga branch-family member, but his goals and determination had gotten in the way for any deeper kind of relationship between the two of them. Afterwards, though, when Neji finally began to open up a bit, she was the one not interested, since her own determination had gotten a boost after she found herself defeated by Temari, as well as after seeing Naruto beat the crap out of Neji.

Why was it that every trail of thought she had to day seemed to lead back to one guy; Naruto? Was she really that interested in him that she had to think about him all the time? Shrugging that rather scary thought off, she found herself back at square one, finding something to do. When the team arrived at the ANBU corps office, they had no mission waiting for them, so there wasn't much left to do then to leave for the day, really. As soon as she got home, she talked a bit with her mom and dad about her day over lunch before taking a long shower to wash off one day's worth of shock. With nothing better to do, she decided to take a walk and here she was now, bored out of her mind.

_I guess I could always try to find out what all the villagers have against him. _She thought after scowling at herself for once again arriving back to that topic.

That task proved out to be rather harder than she initially thought, who was she going to ask? Since she couldn't really go and ask random villagers, she decided for the second best thing, a place where he seemed to spend a lot of time, Ichiraku Ramen.

Arriving at the ramen stand a couple of minutes later, she parted the curtain and sat down on the first stool she came across. The old chef that was there during her earlier visit still stood behind the counter and greeted her kindly. "Hi, you're that girl that was here with Naruto earlier, correct? Shrimp Ramen, right? It's on the house."

Slightly puzzled as to why the owner would treat her too ramen when he didn't even know her, she asked the obvious question. "Thanks! May I ask why?"

"If it wasn't for him, I would be unemployed. I still can't understand where he has gotten that huge appetite. Well, any friend of Naruto is a friend of mine!" He said.

"Actually, I was hoping to talk to you about him." She said with a hopeful yet serious voice.

"Oh? What about him?" The old man asked as he placed a steaming bowl of Shrimp Ramen in front of Tenten.

"I get the impression you know him pretty well, probably better than anyone I know. Has he changed much during the years? He's not at all the same Naruto I used---" She stopped herself in mid-sentence. _Know? I can honestly say I never took my time to know him._ She sighed to herself and settled for the only other thing that came to her mind. "... to remember."

"Changed? I guess so, he comes here everyday he can, so it's probably a little hard to notice for me, but when I think about, yeah. He's not the same boy that used to carry out pranks all the time, he stopped with that just before he got the rank Chuunin, I think." The owner replied. "He was extremely depressed for a couple of months, Ayame - my daughter, got a little worried about him. One day when he came by it looked like nothing was bothering him anymore, later I heard that he had just quit his team."

"Ohh... Thanks." She said as started eating on her food, deep in thought. _So quitting his team was what initially changed him?_ It sounded odd, to say the least. _And I still don't know why everyone hates him, although that probably dates further back than when he became Genin..._

"No problem. You might wanna ask Naruto himself, though."

"Ask me what?" Came the question from behind Tenten. She turned around quickly and almost choked on a noodle as she saw the curtain part and Naruto standing there. _Shit, now what will he think, that I'm spying on him? _Sensing that it looked as if she was panicking, not that she wasn't, she quickly turned back towards the counter.

Slightly puzzled, he sat down on the stool next to her and ordered a Miso Ramen before greeting her. "Ohayo Tenten-san... So, ask me what?" He asked with the usual wide grin. Instead of his ANBU attire, he was now wearing casual clothing which consisted of a black t-shirt with what, she supposed, was his clan seal; a swirl, colored in orange. Under the t-shirt he wore a fishnet shirt of some kind with fairly long arms, which reached a little longer than to his elbows and on his. His legs were covered by orange-colored shorts, and his forehead protector still rested on his right leg.

_Now how am I going to get out of this mess?_ She asked herself, but before she could answer the chef did it for her.

"About what made you change from your old self." He said as indifferently as he could, until he saw Tentens glare.

Naruto looked puzzled for a second or two before putting his broad grin on his lips again. "Oh... Well, I'm not gonna be the one who tells you. Good luck, though."

Cursing the old man for obviously setting her up, she took a while to answer. "Thanks, I suppose... Why can't you answer the question, then?"

"Because I don't want to. Besides, the past is the past, right?"

"Again with those lame answers." She pouted slightly.

"Ahh, but then, why are you so curious?" He asked with a mischievous smile.

Caught blushing slightly, for a reason she didn't know why, she settled for the only thing that came to her head. "I would answer, but I don't really want to."

Naruto just chuckled slightly. "Fair enough."

What followed then was an awkward silence as both of them were eating, not really knowing what to say. After a while Naruto decided to end the silence. "So... what made you join the ANBU anyway?"

"It's a good place to gain experience and strength, I guess. What about you?"

"Well, at first, because Tsunade and Jiraiya advised me to do it. But later I really felt like it was somewhere I fitted in and belonged, and therefore stayed here a lot longer than I first intended. When the chance to become captain presented itself I accepted, and that's pretty much it."

"ANBU-Captain at seventeen, that's quite an accomplishment. Guess you're full of surprises, huh?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked surprised.

"When I first met you, you were pretty much the clown of the class. Then not even one and a half year later you beat Neji, a natural genius and number one rookie. I still don't understand how you managed to open up your tenketsus, though."

"Oh." Naruto said, trying to avoid an answer. "Would you believe me if I said he missed my tenketsus?"

"Of course not, do you take me for a fool?"

"Hmm, what about luck, then?"

"Luck? Judging from how Neji and Gai always avoided the question, I'd say there was more to it than that." She stated, annoyed, but sensing how she wouldn't get an answer anyway, she got to the next thing. "Anyway, is it true you beat up Gaara too?"

"Gaara? Not really... Well, you could call it a draw." He said as a grin crept up on his lips.

She took a deep breath, trying her hardest to keep herself from murdering the blonde teen in a very, very gruesome manner. "You're hopeless, you know that?"

"Ahh, yes... You're not the first one to tell me that."

"Now that, I believe. Well, I gotta run, see you tomorrow." She said as she finished up her ramen.

"The bridge, seven-o-clock, don't be late, we got some boring patrol-duty tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah..." She said, and with that she parted the curtain and left. Twelve bowls of ramen later, Naruto did the same thing.

* * *

**Authors little corner:**

**Tenketsus:** Chakra Opening Point-thingies... You know, the kind that the Byuukagan can see :D

**Goukakyuu no Jutsu:** Powerful Fireball Technique. The one Sasuke seems to have patended in the manga...

About the 'Flower of Acceptance' part with Gai... I'm pretty sure I got it from the anime or manga somewhere, but it could be possible I got it from a fic here at fanfiction... If I did, I'm really sorry for 'stealing' it, say the word and I'll remove it :)

Ahh, now that you read all that, it's time for me to direct your attention elsewhere, namely towards 'Erikkoekkoek' and his fic 'Do You Hate Me?'. It's a great fic (no, I am just not saying that... :D) and if you even as much as liked Behind a Mask a tiny little bit, you're gonna love his fic, trust me. Another fic really worth reading would be 'Flower of Konoha' written by 'Princess-Tsunade'. I think Erik put it best when he said 'Whenever I read it, it just makes me happy'. So there ya go, if you're feeling down, or just wanna read a superb fic, 'Flower of Konoha' is a great choice :)

**ErikKoekkoek, my beloved (not that kinda love :D) beta-reader:** Yeah, she does, doesn't she? :D Pity we don't see her more in the manga though, hope she'll make an appearance soon! Ohh, and double Thanks, btw! Without you I'd probably still messing around and not releasing this, not to mention all the errors you fixed. Now just stop waving that spatula around my face :]

**Maboroshi-hime:** Ahhh, the pain of logging in :) We've all been there. Thanks for your compliments; I'm glad you liked it, especially since I more then like 'Never Ever' :D

**dee-unlm1t3d:** Thanks! I'm glad you found it interesting and I hope you'll keep find it as interesting!

**Ice Dragon XXI:** Thanks! I'll try to keep updating frequently, at the very least once a week. If it makes you feel any better, ErikKoekkoek will hit me with the spatula if I doesn't... :(

**Grand Admiral Gin, hinanaru, esanime:** Thank you! I'll definitely try!

**Alden-san:** I'm really glad you liked it, seeing I've read about everyone off your one-shots; you, together with Lackey H and his 'Betrothal' was probably what got me into rare pairings in the first place :D. Yes, there will be a plot, I've not yet thought of all of it though, but there will. And no, the pairing won't be a central thing either, and neither will the ANBU-team. It will be a large piece of it, yes, but far from everything. Thanks for reviewing!

**Kepelus:** Thank you! And yeah, Naruto will probably settle things with that sissy, uh, Sasuke, in a couple of chapters. Kakashi will probably make an appearance, which will eventually lead up to that...

**element4life:** Thanks! Yeah, NaruTenten is a great pairing. I hope I won't have to keep you waiting too long, though :D

**Max Knight:** The others Genin will probably make an appearance sooner or later, some of them anyway... No one is Jounin yet though, since I really think 17/18 is too young to be Jounin. The old Genins doesn't have enough experience for that position yet, in my opinion. Naruto holds the rank Special Jounin now though, which I see as a rank in between Chuunin and Jounin.

**Pale Pilsen:** Thanks! I'm glad you found it interesting! And trust me, one way or another I am gonna finish this fic...

**One Azn Dragon:** Hehe, good question :) It will come, I just want to start of their relationship slowly, build it up... Just wait two or so chapters? :D

**TokehGecko:** Thanks! And yeah, as you can see in this chapter, he remembers her. I thought it showed on the comment he made about 'a surprise someone actually remembers me'. Aaaanyway, I'd be honored to have this published on your site since my favorite fanfic-authors are already there (SOC puppet, Alden-san, Bubblytokki, Perfect Psionic Soldier and yourself... gah, I'm being such a suck-up :D). So, yeah, sure, you have my permission.

**Princess-Tsunade:** Yeah, those two green 'beasts' makes me laugh uncontrollable too, and more scenes with the two of 'em will come up, especially since they are Tentens old teammate and sensei :D. Sasuke? Not hate as much as a huge grudge and a wish to lash a never-ending fury upon him. I mean, he was HAPPY that Chouji and Neji (almost? Can't wait to find out their status :) died trying to save his life? He's an, forgive me saying this as I know you like him ? or at least understand him, unforgivable bitch, something like that anyway. Moving along now, I'd have liked to make it longer, but it was only supposed to be a prologue... Ahhh, sorry if I made Tenten appear like some frigging sex object, just that I'm trying to fit her as imagined she would act (god that sounded awful? Well, remember that Tsunade, her role-model, is like that too :P If it wasn't for her boobs she would've probably be dead by the hands of Kabuto :P ok, I'm shutting up now). Ahh, and I wasn't talking about Kakashi taking three Genins under his wings, it was Genma, sorry if that was a little hard to pick up, if not even impossible. I got a role for Kakashi too, though. Geesh you write long reviews :D Though you know I'm only glad to read them, I really appreciate your reviews ? all reviews, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! (dotdotdot :D) **THANKS!**

**panuru4u:** Yeah, experiences can really change a person, but I think that the major difference in Narutos case is his insecurity, because his mood and overconfidence ultimately comes from low confidence after seeing everyone around him hate him. Ahh anyway, yes, this will be NaruTenten pairing. Thanks for reviewing!

**Peradis:** That's one of the best things you could tell an author, if you ask me, that 'it's different but good', so thank you! I look forward to reading your fic when it's done, even if it's SasuSaku (bah :D) it's the least I can do when you read and review mine, right? So send me a mail when it's done and I'll read it! Thanks again!

**Anael Razualle, ookami-kun:** Thanks for reviewing!

_Revised 07-15-2004. Thanks to document manager, as well as me being oblivious, several '-' and ',' came out as '?'._


	4. Chapter 03: Impressions

"...": Speech

_Italics_: Thoughts

**Bold**: Kyuubi

**_Bold & Italics_**: Naruto talking (mentally) to Kyuubi

Thanks to all reviewers! Responses can be found at the end of this chapter...

_Sorry it took me so long to release this chapter. Now's the time where I come with a crap load of excuses, but I'm afraid I'm not gonna bore you with them. Instead I'll try to release the next chapter a little faster. Ok, a lot faster. :)_

* * *

**Behind a Mask**

**Chapter 03: _Impressions_**

Hurrying to the bridge, Naruto found Tenten and Iwashi already there; Tenten sitting calmly on the railing with a smug expression gracing her features and Iwashi glaring daggers at her, obviously still shaken from the yesterdays events, fingering what used to be his goatee. Tenten wasn't wearing her usual outfit today though, he noted, but instead she wore the official ANBU attire, the exact same as his. With the exception of size of course, since he was a good deal taller than her after the numerous growth spurts he had experienced since becoming a chuunin.

It felt good when he one day realized that he was so different from the lost boy he used to be, the one behind a different kind of 'mask'. Of course it hadn't exactly been a picnic getting there, since he had always lagged behind because he never had anyone to teach him, or even accompany him for that matter, in his childhood.

Well, in any case he could happily say that that part of his life was all history. He had people that cared now; he now had what he considered his family and friends. But still, somewhere in his heart, he felt that one little piece was missing...

As he closed in on the bridge rapidly, he noticed another difference to Tentens outfit compared to his, the mask. He hadn't actually seen it himself before, since he - as a captain, didn't have much to do with the selection of it. The mask of an ANBU was picked by the Jounin instructor of the Shinobi that was going to wear it, after he or she got selected into the ranks of the ANBU.

In Tenten's case, Gai had selected a tiger, since he saw it as the best fit for her personality; she could be fierce, protective and outmost determined yet graceful. The official motivation, however, came out as something along the lines of 'Yosh! A tiger!'. Naruto had to admit it though, that even if he didn't know Tenten _that_ good, a tiger was the perfect fit.

Seeing the both of them, Naruto couldn't help but smile at how much Iwashi and Tenten reminded him of the old days with team seven. He actually missed his old teammates from time to time, but in his mind and heart, he knew that he had done the right thing.__

It wasn't an easy choice, to leave them, but on the other hand, it wasn't much of a choice either. It had been the only way for him, and for them, to progress. Especially with the tension that had been there ever since Sasuke attempted to flee.

That idiot, Sasuke, had tried to kill him that fateful day, and it had filled Naruto with rage. They were _supposed_ to be teammates, weren't they? How teammates ever even could attempt to kill each other was beyond comprehendible for Naruto, and when they made it back to Konoha, nothing would be the same. Sasuke had hated him even more after it, saying that he had not only taken away his shot at finally killing his brother, but also gotten him into punishment for betraying Konoha.

But what had hurt the most was the way Sakura reacted. She, the one who had begged him to bring Sasuke back, had said that Sasuke's change was entirely his fault. Well, maybe he shouldn't have accepted Sasuke challenge that evening on the hospital roof, he could agree to that, but it wasn't _his_ fault. _He_ wasn't the one that had brought up the challenge in the first place.

No, enough was enough, and team seven had slowly been falling apart. The only thing he could do to prevent it was to leave. So he did, and it had felt really good.

"Good Morning." He said as soon as they had registered him arriving. When neither of them responded, he decided to find out if anything was wrong. "Something happened?" He questioned as he glanced briefly in Tenten's direction, and then towards Iwashi to see if he was missing any body parts.

"Good morning, Naruto-san." Tenten said after a while. "You're late, you know."

"Ah, yes... Sorry about that, was fetching today's missions from Tsunade and... Well, she can be a little hard to wake up some times." He said, while gently rubbing a particularly sore spot on the side of his head.

"So, we're up for the usual, boring patrolling?" Iwashi asked and let out a deep sigh.

"Seems so... We'll get relieved after five hours, and I want to squeeze in some training after that." Naruto answered, that last part directed towards Tenten. "Yes, I need to see what you're... capable off."

"I was wondering when you'd ask that." Tenten answered coolly, but her inside was boiling with anticipation of the young blonde's abilities, to see exactly _how_ much he had changed. If he had enough force to break through Neji's Kaiten five years ago, and has since then been training with Jiraiya, he had to be quite good, wouldn't he? But right now though, she had five hours of boring patrolling to look forward too.

"Good, now let's go." Naruto said, and they all disappeared.

**

###

**

"What was that poison you used yesterday, anyway? I barely felt my arm until late at night." Iwashi asked curiously.

They had been scanning the forest for about three hours now. Three incredibly boring hours, with nothing else than small-talk to make time pass a little faster. Hopping from branch to branch, the trio had formed a triangular formation with Naruto in front and Iwashi, to his initial terror, beside Tenten, two steps behind the captain.

He was still a little scared of her, but he had to admit, although reluctantly, that she was ok once you got to know her. They had come to a mutual agreement after about an hour and a half that they would, for the time being, forget their little brawl yesterday and focus on making these five hours pass a little quicker.

"I'm impressed; you must've cut the blood flow quite fast. Well, the kunais from that pouch have been coated in a poison that paralyzes every major body part near the wound for about half an hour in a matter of minutes. It comes in handy, actually." She grinned. "Well, my turn."

She thought for a couple of moments, trying to find a good question to ask. "Naruto told me yesterday that you were in the squad longer than him, but passed down the chance to become captain. Why?"

"I guess I figured that I'm not cut out to be a leader, not yet anyway." He said and breathed out a sigh. "It's just an excessive amount of responsibility that I rather do without."

"Good enough, your turn."

"Well, what about---"

"Shhh." Naruto ordered suddenly. "Anyone of you heard something just now?" They both shook their head as a response.

"There it is again." Naruto continued, and just as suddenly hurried towards a direction to the left.

"And there he goes again." Iwashi said with a shrug and followed after his captain, leaving Tenten no other choice than to follow as well.

After a minute of traveling in warp-speed, they found Naruto crouched on a branch overlooking a clearing. They heard muffled screams a little distance away and as they positioned themselves beside Naruto on the same branch, they saw what was going on.

What seemed to be around one dozen of thugs were attacking civilian merchants on their way towards Konoha. The merchants seemed to have an escort made out of rogue ninjas but they were still greatly outnumbered; they would probably not be able to hold the thugs off much longer. Two of the escorts were already on the ground.

Sensing that the thugs were going to attack again after briefly re-thinking their strategy, Naruto jumped down to the ground and positioned himself between both parties, quickly followed by Tenten and Iwashi.

"What the... Who, _what_, are you?" The biggest of the dozen asked as soon as the trio caught his eyes. Not that it was surprising, since most people never got the chance to see an ANBU twice.

"I'm warning you." Naruto announced clearly. "Leave those merchants alone, or we'll be forced to take action."

"I don't think so, you freak." Came the sneering response from the large guy. "I don't care who you guys are, but you're not getting out of this alive."

"You don't seem to get it, do you?" Iwashi butted in. "You're barely even cannon fodder to us."

Naruto sighed as he heard his teammate's words. _Why the hell does he always have to do that?_ Well, if they needed to fight, an enemy that was burning with rage was easier to fight, especially with opponents at this level. But that didn't mean they had to resolve to violence in the first place.

"What did you say?" One of the thugs asked. "You seem to be forgetting the fact that you're outnumbered three to _one_ here."

"Actually, it's _four_ to one." Iwashi said with a shrug.

"I take it you're not backing down then?" Naruto asked as he readied a shuriken in his hand.

"Heh, you're gonna kill us all with just one of those pointy little things? I'd like to see that." One of the thugs said as he unsheathed his katana.

Naruto flicked the shuriken effortlessly in their direction and began to do some hand seals.

The thugs easily moved out of the way from the incoming shuriken until it, to their horror, suddenly divided into fifty exact copies.

"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Naruto announced as the shurikens impacted on most of their targets.

"...the hell?!" Was the only thing most of them got out as they felt a sharp pain being inflict on several locations all over their bodies and soon fell over, dead. Only three was left standing, hiding behind the cover that their friends had been.

"That would be one on one, then." Iwashi smirked.

"You bastard! I'll kill you!" One of the remaining three screamed as he and the remaining other two dashed off towards Naruto in blind fury, swords drawn menacingly over their heads. Two of them stopped dead in their tracks however, as they both felt a stabbing pain in their throat; shurikens thrown by Tenten. It didn't take long before they stumbled over and took their last breaths.

Naruto easily stepped back as the last one closed in on him and sliced at him with his sword, aiming for Naruto's torso. As he was about to try again, with a sweeping motion with his sword aimed for Naruto's legs this time, he felt a palm on his forehead. A moment later he was completely dizzy and everything was spinning, before it turned black, and the thug managed a last bewildered breath before he fell to the forest floor, his body limp.

Tenten couldn't believe what she saw. What in the world was that? If anything, it had reminded her of Kaiten, but it was still completely different. Her captain, Naruto, had put his palm on the thug's forehead, and moments later there was _nothing_ left of that part he had touched.

Instead a beautiful, glowing sphere of... _chakra_... in Narutos palm, that slowly but surely died down as the last thug hit the ground with a thud. _A sphere made out of chakra? Is that even possible?_ She asked herself, and couldn't even comprehend the control needed for such a technique.

Tenten stood there for a while, dumbfounded, until a voice woke her up of her inner musings.

"Th-Thanks, you saved our lives... Who are you?" One of the merchants uttered from their position a few meters away from Narutos squad, obviously also awe-struck at the scene that had unfolded before his eyes mere seconds ago. Never did he think that three - no, two - ninjas could take care of one dozen thugs. At least not _that_ easily.

"ANBU, the guardians of Konoha, welcome to Fire Country. I trust you don't need any further help." Naruto said, and with that he left, followed by his two teammates.

**

###

**

The remaining two hours of patrolling the forest outside of Konoha went smoothly and as soon as Iwashi and Tenten had resumed their talking, two hours flew by pretty fast.

After getting relieved by another team, Naruto and Tenten now found themselves at a training area just outside of the actual village. Iwashi had already left for the day, saying that he didn't want to be there when Tenten lost the sparring-session and then quickly disappearing with a smirk on his face before she could get her hands on him.

"So, you just want me to come at ya', or what?" Tenten asked the masked blonde that was facing her across the training ground.

"Yeah, something like that." Naruto grinned as he slipped into his ever so casual stance.

"And I shouldn't hold back?"

"Nah... As long as you don't kill me, or seriously hurt me, I'm happy." The blonde boy chuckled.

_Either he's really stupid, or incredibly good... _Tenten thought, and with that she began her attack.

She took out two kunais from her pouch and threw them at Naruto. He was about to catch them when he recalled the events yesterday, on the bridge. _Damnit, poison?_ He asked himself and began dodging them instead, but soon realized that he had started moving too late and that one of them was going to hit him anyway, regardless of his efforts.

As the first kunai soared past him, it nicked his left shoulder that started bleeding soon as soon as it had hit him. With the blood a stabbing pain also followed, and for once he hated being right. He clutched the bleeding wound with his right hand and soon felt his feeling in the area around the wound disappearing, little by little.

**_Time to make yourself useful, fox._** He ordered in his mind and was replied with a growl, as usual.

**Stop being so helpless, kit.**** It's bad enough being stuck inside of a _human_. It's only a sparring-session, anyway, **Kyuubi sneered.

**_Our deal, remember?_** The only reply he got was another thunderous growl, before slowly getting the feeling back in his arm, and found the scratch on his shoulder closing again. **_That wasn't so hard, now was it? Thanks, blasted fur ball._** He smiled lightly as he could feel the demon inside of him boil with barely suppressed rage.

As Naruto looked up, Tenten was nowhere to be found. He looked around him but still couldn't find any trace of her and therefore decided to rely on his other senses, especially his nose and ear.

In a tree not far away, Tenten smiled beneath her mask. _The poison should be taking effect soon, and he hasn't even bothered to stop the blood flow. Guess he just was stupid after all,_ she thought to herself. With his left arm not moving, it should be easy for her since he only had one arm to rely on to block the katana, no to mention that he wouldn't be able form and hand seals.

Naruto had located Tenten by now, thanks to his heightened senses that he had gotten in a bundle together with a certain demon. He had to admit that having a huge living ball of fur inside of you did have its perks sometimes, especially in combat. Perks that gave him an edge over his enemies.

He didn't bother going on the offense, since it would be smarter not to. Right now he had several advantages over his 'enemy', the biggest of which was that Tenten thought that he actually had none.

He sensed her beginning to move, stalking carefully around him to attack him in the back, faster than he thought she could. _Guess something rubbed off from the 'Green Beasts'..._ He thought, amused for a moment until he decided it was time drop the oblivious façade and go to defense.

Drawing a kunai from his pouch with his right hand and spinning around 180 degrees, he blocked her katana steadily with the knife, his left arm still hanging by his side.

"Hn... So you knew where I was?" Tenten asked, half surprised.

"Yup." He grinned.

_I still have the advantage since he only has one arm. It'll be hard for him to keep blocking,_ she thought and decided to keep attacking.

Tenten took one step backwards and entered an offensive stance, gripping her katana with both her hands. She briefly thought over the attack she'd soon put into action in her head and then, with a smug grin on her lips, launched herself towards Naruto.

Blocking blow after blow with his kunai, Naruto found it quite hard to keep it up while at the same time faking an injury. The fact that he didn't initiate any attacks himself and that the kunai was a good deal smaller than Tenten's sword didn't make it any easier.

The two combatants soon found their blades stuck in a dead lock, both struggling; Tenten with two arms and Naruto with one.

"You seem to forgetting that you're at disadvantage, captain" Tenten smirked in superiority.

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yeah, your left shoulder is not moving, if you only keep blocking you're eventually gonna make a mistake.... or two."

"And if I don't?" The blonde boy grinned.

Instead of answering, Tenten released the grip on her handle with her right hand and moved it towards her pouch, where she pulled out a kunai.

Tempted to use his 'injured' arm as the poisoned kunai moved closer and closer to his right arm, he instead chose another course of action. With one of her hands released on her blade, he could easily overpower her with his kunai and quickly did so, while simultaneously gathering chakra to his legs and doing a high back flip, kicking Tenten in the jaw on the way up and later landing around 3 meter behind his previous position.

Tasting the coppery crimson liquid on her tongue, Tenten entered the same stance again, not giving up. She lunged forward in the same style as last time, but faster this time, her determination obviously fueled by the futile attempt just moments earlier.

Although still at a disadvantage, Naruto managed to block or dodge every blow until Tenten came a little too close for comfort with a sweep aimed at his feet.

He did another back flip, to get to a safe distance - this time without kicking her as she was ready for it, and would have easily changed the situation and gaining the upper hand.

When he landed graciously on the ground again, he became aware of that Tenten was sheathing her blade and instead pulling out a shuriken. She threw it at him and immediately starting on hand seals.

"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" She cried out, making a large amount of copies out of the single shuriken, and then immediately started on another set of hand seals.

Dodging the shurikens that were suddenly everywhere, he soon found out that they were just a decoy to keep him busy as he heard Tenten announce another technique.

"Ikkitousennomusha no Jutsu!"

Nothing seemed to have happened as Naruto looked around him, searching for anything. _Genjutsu?_ He asked in his mind, since he still hadn't noticed anything changed in the area around him, but his instincts told him otherwise.

He took a look at towards Tenten again, and noticed she had once again unsheathed her blad and entered the same stance. _So the jutsu failed?_ He concluded.

As she came at him once again, he noticed something that had changed: her speed. She was faster than before. Gripping the kunai in his hand, he waited for the attack with anticipation as she lunged towards him. When the first blow came, he noted another difference; she was stronger than before as well.

A lot stroner, and he feared that he'd have a problem to match her strength with only one hand.

As their blades clashed yet again, it became apparent to Naruto that he couldn't keep this up with only one arm for long. Instead, he tried to buy some time, hoping that she wouldn't have the stamina to keep up that heightened state for long.

"Interesting jutsu... Gives you heightened abilities, right?" He inquired.

"Yeah."

"What kind? And how much?" Naruto asked, trying to drag it out even further.

"You got really talkative all of a sudden." An evident but uncomfortable smirk under her mask. She obviously didn't like the idea of talking while still using the technique.

"Curious, that's all." He answered while simultaneously ducking under a sudden swoop of her sword. _Woah__! She's really all business right now. Guess it's about time to end it now though_, he thought to himself.

Naruto had to dodge another blow, and then directly blocking another with the kunai. They continued like this, Tenten lashing out blow after blow and Naruto either blocking or dodging it. After a minute Naruto found it hard to keep from getting hit, and without the demon's chakra, it wouldn't have been possible.

As she came at him again with another sweep, he dodged it with a quick motion to the side. Shifting his body-weight to one leg, he knocked her down to ground with his 'injured' arm.

Tenten was taken aback by the fact that her poison didn't seem to have any effect, the next thing she was knew the blonde boy standing over her with a kunai to her throat.

"Always leave your trump cards unknown till the end." Naruto said in a smug voice.

"Your injury! The poison didn't have any effect?!"

"Oh, this?" He asked, and with grin under his mask showed him the injured area on his shoulder. It had almost closed completely now.

"How?"

He reached his hand out in front of her, motioning for her to grab a hold of it. "Let's talk about that on the way back to the headquarters. I'm also interested in your technique."

As she stood up, she released her jutsu and was suddenly worn out. Breathing hard, she propped her arms on her legs.

"I see, the technique doesn't draw anything on your stamina until you release the technique, and then it all comes at once, right?"

"Yes, the technique drains stamina rather quickly, and when I don't have any left it gets released automatically. I can use it for about seven minutes until that happens, which has been enough to finish any serious fights I've been in so far." She said in between breaths.

"How much does it heighten your abilities, then? And what exactly does it heighten?" Naruto asked while forming some hand seals.

Tenten looked questioningly on him as he formed the hand seals, before she answered. "Speed and strength. It also allows me to take far more blows than I would've been able to otherwise." She said, still eyeing his hands until a soothing blue aura formed around his right hand.

He put his hand over her chest, on top of one of her lungs, and after just a few seconds her breathing was back to normal again.

"Thanks, I feel much better now." She said. "How come you know a medical jutsu, by the way? That's how you fixed your wound?"

"It's standard for every ANBU captain to know, since we have the ultimate responsibility for every person in the team." He answered, purposely avoiding the second question. Tenten just assumed that he had used the same jutsu on his shoulder.

A short silence fell upon the two as they started to make their way back. Tenten used the time, trying to figure out how to formulate the many questions that had been forming in her head.

"I didn't expect you to be that good, honestly. Not many can keep up while I'm using that jutsu." She said, and through a bit of hesitation she continued. "That technique you used earlier, against that rogue. What was it?"

"The Rasengan. It was a technique the fourth left behind, and that our common sensei, Jiraiya, taught me." The blonde answered, flashing a grin on his now unmasked face.

_Apparently, bits and pieces of his old attitude are still there_, she thought, as he obviously enjoyed showing off now and then. A moderate smile crept up on her lips as she remembered the orange-clad brat and compared it to the man next to her.

"It was..." Barely stopping herself from saying 'beautiful', as it would, in her opinion, make her sound like an overly impressed little girl; she used the second thing that crept up in her mind. "...impressive." She almost slapped her hand hard over her forehead as it probably sounded even worse.

"Yeah... Listen, you wanna grab a bite or something after we get changed? My treat. I haven't eaten since breakfast." He said rather suddenly, while rubbing his growling stomach affectionately.

"Sure. Why not." Tenten answered after getting over her initial shock. _Eh, his treat? And it would be on off-duty hours, too. Wouldn't that almost make it... a date? _The dark-haired ANBU asked herself, at the same time wondering exactly why she had been so quick with answering 'sure'.

"Good!" Naruto almost exclaimed, flashing another grin towards her.

It was all a big question mark to him, though. He hadn't felt the need to impress someone for a very long time. Still as oblivious as ever when it came to the opposite sex, Naruto simply shrugged, thinking that he'd, hopefully, get a clue sooner or later on the things he was feeling right now.

As they reached the ANBU headquarters, they quickly went inside their respective locker rooms after mumbling 'I'll meet you outside soon', both feeling the need to think over certain things.

When she got into the locker room, Tenten cast a glance at her surroundings and noticed that she was alone. Well, it wasn't that strange considering that they had done some sparring after their mission, which meant that most ANBU working the morning shift had already gotten back, dressed and gone home, while the once working the later shifts were already out doing missions.

She found her locker, number 19, quickly and opened it. Her stuff was in a perfectly neat order, since she had had some extra time this morning after getting here at least 15 minutes earlier than she had too. Now however, she was in a hurry to get to the tempting shower and do some thinking while she would try and wash off some of the strain of today's activities. She ripped a fluffy white towel out of her locker and threw in the clothing she tore off her body impatiently.

After she was done undressing, Tenten wrapped the towel around her body and moved towards the shower. The shower-area was in perfect condition, to her surprise, together with the rest of the locker room. It wasn't hard to imagine that the showers of the ANBU headquarters, where the ninjas - even the Kunoichi - had a reputation of being totally ruthless, were in a bad shape. But then again, with a female Hokage in command, especially one of Tsunade's caliber, it wasn't hard to guess that she had something to do with it. A smirk flashed across her lips as she imagined that the men's locker room would be nowhere near the quality as of the ladies.

She turned the knob of the shower causing it to release streams of hot water from the shower-head above her. Soon after, clouds of hazy steam billowed through the tiled room and Tenten began pondering on the many things on her mind. _Ok, so I got nothing new on why he seems to be so hated_, she thought while removing the senbon needles from the two perfectly shaped buns on top of her head, releasing her hair down over her neck.

_Then, the other mystery... How strong is he really?_ This topic, unlike the first, she thought about for some time while letting the water caress her skin.

_From what I saw during the sparring-session, I'd say he's fast. Not as Gai-sensei or Lee, but possibly close. _She pondered a bit further on the subject as she lathered her neck-length dark hair with shampoo and massaged it into her scalp gently. _Judging from the few jutsus I've seen him pull, he's probably good at that bit too, especially with the control that rasengan must need._

She came to the conclusion that, unless he had been totally playing with her during the sparring, he would be somewhere below Gai's level, since she didn't know many others to use as a reference.

_And why did he ask me to 'grab a bite' with him? Could he really have meant it as a... date?_ To be honest with herself, she did actually like the sound of that, for some reason, but quickly shook her head, wondering from where that comment had come from.

When she was done shampooing her hair, Tenten quickly washed the shampoo away and stepped out of the shower after she turned off the water-supply, grabbing the towel and the two needles and taking them with her as she proceeded towards her locker.

After drying every inch of her body, getting dressed in her casual clothes and tying up her hair into buns again, she was out of the door. She didn't like to keep people waiting, it was unprofessional, and she was quite sure that he would be faster than her. She was right too.

As she stepped out of the locker room, she saw Naruto waiting as impatiently as ever in his orange shorts and black shirt.

"Hey. So, should we get moving?" Tenten asked. After receiving a nod, they walked out together, side by side.

"Where should we go? What are you hungry far?" she asked, curiously, as soon as they were out of the building.

"Ramen!" The blonde shouted eagerly. "I mean... if it's alright with you."

_Ramen, again?__ Does he ever eat anything else than that?_ Clearly not in the mood for ramen today, she began thinking of a plot in order to get some other kind of, preferably slightly healthier, food into his thickheaded skull. "Ramen isn't good for you, you know. How about something that is? I know this great place where they serve good vegetarian soups. I can show you where it is."

"Eh? Ramen never hurt me..." He said sulkily. Albeit a little disappointed, and never in the mood for anything labeled as 'vegetarian', he complied, feeling a very sudden and weird but yet demanding need to grant her wish. "...but vegetarian soup sounds good. Sure, why not."

Never in her life would Tenten have thought that it would be that easy to get Uzumaki Naruto off his ramen-frenzy and get him to eat something else, and she was quite proud of herself.

"Good! Just follow me and..." She began, but was cut of by a loud and terribly familiar voice behind them.

"NARUTO-KUN!" A green-clad object, traveling in a dangerously high speed, screamed as 'it' came to a sudden stop, taking in two shocked faces.

"Lee...? What the hell are you doing here?!" Tenten asked, as calmly as the circumstances allowed.

"I hereby challenge you to a fight!" Came the simple answer, while the speaker himself entered a weird and a not-so-simplistic pose.

"Eh?!" Was the only reaction she saw fit for the moment, trying to comprehend just why he would do that, and in the process probably ruin their date... _meal!_ she told herself. Well, knowing Lee, there was an answer, but it was far too complex for any human-being other than himself and possibly Gai to understand, so she quickly put the futile try to find out aside.

Naruto's reaction, however, wasn't the same as Tenten's. "Hey, Lee. Long time no see... And I'm sorry to say that I don't want to fight you."

"Aww, why not?!"

"I simply don't."

The quite bewildered Lee soon thought up another approach, this one foolproof. "Hah! That would mean I'm in the lead with 2-0!" He exclaimed.

"I count 1-0... The time just before our first Chuunin exam and...?" Naruto asked and all of a sudden looked quite interested.

"You refused this one, which would automatically make me gain the win!"

"Oh, ok... Well, I'm still not interested in fighting you." He said and shrugged.

"That's just what I expect of my eternal rival!" Lee triumphed, both hands formed into fists and high into the air, as he had observed his sensei do so many times.

"Mind telling me since exactly when I've been your 'eternal rival', Lee?" Naruto inquired.

"Since... yesterday, actually."

Naruto nearly face-faulted at the comment. "Ah, sure... I'm honored, I guess." He said before turning towards Tenten again, who was beginning to feel quite annoyed about being ignored for such a long time.

"So, shall we get going, Tenten?"

This earned a sudden burst in interest by the man dressed completely in green. "Going where?"

"Just somewhere to eat." Naruto replied. "You also hungry, by the way? You're free to tag along, if you want." He replied, receiving a disappointed stare from Tenten.

"Lee can't 'tag along' right now, Naruto, because he's busy... aren't you, Lee" She said, and it came out more as a statement rather than a question.

"Eh? I don't think I am, though..." Being as oblivious as Naruto when it came to females, he didn't exactly pick up on the little hints and instead got cut of by Tenten.

"Aren't you usually training with Gai at this time?"

"Yes, but he was occupied with a mission today. So I think I'm free to follow you guys!"

Tenten breathed out a deep sigh, and spoke towards Naruto in a voice dripping with sugar. "Do you mind walking ahead as I strang, err... talk to Lee alone? I'll catch up in a few seconds."

Naruto, royally confused by now, complied and walked in a slow tempo towards the busier streets of Konoha.

"What was that about?" Lee asked, almost as confused as the blonde young man.

"Listen Lee, you can't come." She said.

"Eh?"

"Another time, perhaps, but not today..." She turned around to leave, but the green-clad boy apparently had other plans as he spoke up yet again.

"Why are you doing this, Tenten?"

How was she going to answer that question? Frankly, she didn't know exactly why either. All she knew was that she liked the idea of spending some time alone in a restaurant with Naruto quite much. Maybe even too much. _What the... Where did those feelings come from?_ She thought, and looked over at the only other person there for clues, or anything. What she saw made her cringe, as Lee was smirking. A smirking Lee was definitely not a good thing, as the next couple of words he would utter would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt...

"Don't tell me that you two are on a date!" He said, voice in a gleeful state and the smirk growing even wider. The boy with the distinct bowled hair cut and fuzzy eyebrows was thickheaded, among other things, but he wasn't _that_ thickheaded.

"Of course not!" She told him, and to herself at the same time. "I need to go now, see you later." She rushed the words out of her mouth, and turned around to catch up to Naruto, not wanting to be disturbed by Lee any longer.

**

###

**

In a small country just next to the boarders of Fire Country, a black and long-haired man sat in a dark room, in front of a table completely soaked in maps and scrolls of various kinds. Next to him sat a grey-haired, in his early twenties.

"Orochimaru-sama, I don't think we're ready yet. Hidden Leaf is growing stronger by the day, and we're..." The younger of the two said in a low voice with utmost respect in his voice. If it was any other man, he wouldn't have hesitated with finishing that sentence. But this man he feared, just as much as he respected him, which was a lot.

The black-haired man calmly stared at one of the maps, towards an area on it titled 'Hidden Leaf'. "No..." He started, licking his lips slowly with his abnormally sized tongue in annoyance. This, of course, wasn't a good sign to the young man, as his master often did that before he completely lost it.

"We're clearly not ready yet." He finally continued. "It is... regrettable. I've been looking forward to seeing my fellow sannins dead. Not to mention that Kyuubi brat, I think I'll enjoy his death the most, for snatching my Sasuke-kun away right before my eyes."

"What do you suggest we do, Orochimaru-sama?" The grey-haired man asked cautiously, still aware of that the older Shinobi might burst with suppressed rage any minute.

Without any warning and in the blink of an eye, the black-haired man struck a kunai at another area of the map, with such force the table almost fell over. He never took his eyes of off 'Hidden Leaf'. The younger nin was ready to duck and seek for cover as the blow was a little to close for comfort, almost impaling his right hand. He flinched visibly when he heard the other speak up in subtle rage.

"Go there, and take two of 'the five' with you."

The young man looked confused at his master until he took a brief glance at the kunai, and the area under it. An area titled 'Hidden Cloud'.

"They wouldn't want to waste a chance to cross Konoha once and for all, not after the humiliating defeat they suffered all those years ago. What's even better is that Tsunades brother and boyfriend both were killed by the Cloud..." Orochimaru smiled viciously, once again licking his lips.

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama. I'll get prepared to leave." The grey-haired man stood up and bowed before leaving.

_I'll take pleasure in seeing Konoha crumble._ The black-haired man sneered. _I'll see you soon, Tsunade, Jiraiya... I'll be sure to kill off the Kyuubi in front of both your eyes._

* * *

**Authors Note.**

_Now that you read the chapter, I'd like to, yet again, apologize for the lateness of this chapter. I'm terribly and truly sorry that it took so long to release, and I hope the chapter itself didn't disappoint you in any way after such a long wait._

_A huge thanks to Erik for being my beta and well... putting up with me! : P _

_Also a big thanks to Princess-Tsunade for being so goddamn friendly all the time!_

_Without you guys, I wouldn't have gotten very far at all with this story. Thanks again._

**Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu** - Shuriken Shadow Clone.  
Multiplies a single shuriken into an amount of clones, how many depending on how much chakra is used.

**Ikkitousennomusha no Jutsu** - Matchless Warrior.  
Heightens the user's body in strength, speed and toughness. It drains stamina rather quickly, but the user is unaffected by this until the jutsu is released. When it is released, however, everything hits the user at once. (Thanks to Erik for this technique. Keep 'em coming!)

**Rasengan** - Wind Bullet

How will the, so-called, date go?

Will Lee finally get to fight it off with his eternal rival?

What are Orochimaru and his pet slave Kabuto up to?

Keep reading to find out! And keep reviewing! Remember, kids, reviews are good! They truly are a **drug** to me! : P

Now for those that reviewed since the last chapter: Thank you! Thank you a million times over!

**ErikKoekkoek** - Thanks! Ah, the joint project, well, I'm looking forward for it as well... The ball is in your court now, btw, if you know what I mean ;)

**Princess-Tsunade** - Err yeah, that 'issue' regarding the ,'s coming out as ?'s was annoying, but I think I got it fixed now, though. Well, thanks for all the feedback, I appreciate it :) I think I ran it by you over ICQ, though, so it feels unnecessary to bring it forth here. Thanks for the review!

**Schemer** - I get your point, but I don't think it's the same 'swirl' to be honest. Since ninjas only have it on their Chuunin/Jounin flak jackets, and it's a 'perfectly formed' swirl, as the one Naruto has on his shirt doesn't look exactly the same. Also, I know that his name, 'Uzumaki' means Whirlpool, so it's only fair to say that his 'clan symbol', if he had one, would be one of a swirl. I'll tell you more about _why_ he had one later, though.

**Linus Van Pelt** - Yeah, I guess it would be, but on the other hand, ANBU are known to perform assassinations, and Naruto doesn't really strike me as the kind to be able to kill easily. Well, I know that he did actually kill several people in this chapter, but I'll come back later to exactly how and why he's changed. Also, the news were dropped kind of suddenly. And yeah, you got it right in the second review. And yeah, I guess he'd be qualified to be a Jounin, but he's not... I don't know exactly how they select Jounins, but I think it's based on experience... Anyway, I got an idea for that part, and he'll be, later on in the fic. For now, he's a 'special-jounin'. Thanks for reviewing!

**NK**** Odin's Wrath** - Thanks! That's really nice to say, that my story is inspirational! And I'll get to the change later, so don't worry about that : ).

**Crimson-Strike** - No, I didn't mean it as Naruto being her ex-boyfriend at all... I meant it as that he's changed and that he's an ex-loudmouth.... Thanks for reviewing.

**element4life** - I don't know yet, to be honest. Well, I'll probably introduce the majority of the old genins, though. Especially team seven and Kakashi, I already have plans for them. Thanks!

**dee-unlm1t3d** - Thanks for your review! And somehow Tenten strike me as being curious, dunno why, to be honest.

**Superpervert****, angelkicat, Pale Pilsen, ookami-kun, writer-golore, Madrikor, Jarik Tentsu, Denieru46, plumwarrior37, SeverianofUrth, Anbu Dr J , Shippou-Chan, asengan** - Thank you all very much for reviewing!

**TriAce -Gaara** - I don't think any of the other genins would've won against Lee if he went all out like he did against Gaara. Putting that aside, I think it'd be a really tight match, but Lee would probably be slightly better. Thanks!

**esanime** - Thanks! I spent some time with thinking over the characters, and I am personally pretty happy about the result. And if they get together, she's probably bound to know his secret sooner or later, so yeah, she'll find out. Haven't thought anything about her reaction yet, though.

**kashisenshey** - Yeah, it is indeed a NaruTen fic... Thanks for the review!

**Max Knight** - Katana's are great, aren't they? : P I regret to say that I haven't seen/read Ranma or Slayers, actually, although I've been about to start for some times, but other things seem to take up the majority of my time, right now. And it's great to see that you also like Erik's fic, it's truly great, and Temari is just one of the coolest characters in the entire manga! Thanks for reviewing!

**One Azn Dragon** - Tokeh is a great author, I enjoy his fics very much, although I'd like to see some of the darker ones being updated : P. Glad you enjoyed the little skirmish on the bridge, I'll probably try to include more things like that. Thanks!

**Crutches** - Thanks for your review, and pointing out those mistakes! I was aware of the repeated paragraph one, but I didn't notice the second one, though. Well, it's because I at first intended for Shino to be a part of the three-man team, but then changed my mind, so then I didn't need him any more, I guess.

**Raidin** - Yeah, NaruTen - among other pairings, are great. The main problem I got with NaruSaku and NaruHina is that it's been done over and over again, you've read all the scenarios already. Well there are some really great NaruSaku and NaruHina fics, of course, but I enjoy unusual pairings better. I read your story, and I don't think it wasn't bad, so I don't see how you need to rewrite it : P. Thanks for the review!

**Kepelus** - Yeah, perhaps you're right about the amount of squad members, just that it's quite confusing since there's scenes with five members and scenes with three members. I figured that it was because Konoha was in an alarmed state after getting Hayate killed and having Orochimaru present that some teams, namely the patrolling ones (outside of town) and the ones on stand-by (that cool ANBU-chick being in one of them) had a few more members for the time-being. Well, it's too late to change it, at any rate, and I think I'm far too lazy to think off two new characters : P. Thanks for reviewing!

**luna** - Thanks! I'm glad you liked it! I'm your average Sasuke hater, but I think he needs to show up sooner or later (well, actually sooner :P), actually, although I guarantee you that it won't be pretty, though. He'll feel inferior, among other things. And I guess team eight, or at least parts of it, will make an appearance too.

**Thanks again to every one that reviewed!**


	5. Chapter 04: Adversities

"...": Speech

_Italics: _Thoughts

**Bold**: Kyuubi

**_Bold & Italics_**: Naruto talking (mentally) to Kyuubi

Whatta...?! My reviews more than doubled since the last chapter! Must be doing something right, then, hehe.

As usual, responses can be found at the bottom! **THANKS!  
  
**

* * *

**  
Behind a Mask  
**

**Chapter 04: _Adversities_**

After catching up to the blonde enigma, the both of them walked together in silence to the restaurant, 'The Emerald Leaf', they had decided to 'grab a bite' at. Finally arriving after several minutes of unnerving silence, they found the place to be a bit crowded - at least more so than Ichiraku Ramen normally was, and the smallest table available was a four-chaired one.

When the two seated themselves Naruto ordered, rather reluctantly of course, a vegetarian noodle soup. The very same as what Tenten had ordered, with the only exception that he had gone with a large portion of extra noodles together with his.

The Kunoichi had merely rolled her eyes, resisting the urge to whack him hard over the head. It wouldn't had looked good, she told herself. Plus, the _tiny _fact that he was her superior probably had something to do with it with it as well. She came to the conclusion that she had to be happy that she had gotten him this far. It had been nothing short of a miracle that he had complied to eat anything that was _not_ ramen.

They got their meals out almost instantly, and Tenten started eating at her usual, _human_, rate. She was hungry, it was past noon and the patrolling and sparring had demanded quite a lot of her, but she wasn't about to act rude and gulp down the whole meal right away. After satisfying her stomach with a few hasty mouthfuls, she slowed down and cast an eye at the young man across the table.

Normally, if he had been eating ramen, not that he actually was _eating_ anything right now though, he would've downed that bowl, along with an additional dozen, in just under the a minute. Instead, he sat there, eyeing the content warily and poking 'some green stuff' with a chopstick. His experience as a Shinobi, as well as a human, told him that anything that colourful _had_ to be poisoned. He stole a glance of Tenten's bowl, noting that her meal was also portrayed in the same array of disoriented colours.

Naruto then eyed the waitress. She seemed nice enough, not suspicious at all. Well, not 'I'm poisoning my customers'-suspicious, anyway, although he did think that it was weird that she seemed to be blushing a bit when she noticed him looking at her. Shrugging that rather silly and weird thought aside, he instead cast another suspicious glance at Tenten. It didn't look she was showing symptoms of poisoning, so maybe that whole idea had been far off from the beginning.

She did, however, show symptoms of something else, the blonde man noted. At first, she looked curious, probably towards his strange behaviour, but that was replaced with subtle rage. Subtle rage wasn't good, he knew that much. A certain event from yesterday, involving a katana and what used to be a three centimetre long goatee, reminded him of that. Subtle rage definitely wasn't good...

He plastered his everyday grin on his face and reluctantly fitted one of those... green things... between his chopsticks and put it in his mouth.

"Mhmm..." Naruto tried making it sound as sincere as possible, and to his great surprise, it wasn't all that hard. It was far from the best thing he had ever eaten of course, but it wasn't _that_ bad either.

Looking up briefly, half expecting a grimace on Tenten's face, he was puzzled for a moment when he saw her looking past him towards the direction of the door, obviously following someone's movement, with a smug expression on her face. Expanding his senses out of curiosity, he felt two distinct chakra signatures entering. He estimated the two of them to be around Chuunin level, definitely less powerful than Tenten.

He turned around slightly and got a good view of the Shinobi's, or rather Kunoichi's entering but quickly faced Tenten again upon realizing who they were. _Oh crap. Why do I always find myself in these situations?_

There was no mistaking it. Haruno Sakura, flanked closely by Yamanaka Ino made their way inside before they noticed Tenten sitting at a table, looked towards each other and decided with a nod to move towards the brown-haired Kunoichi. He felt this, and snuck a peek at Tenten.

His jaw almost hit the table when he saw she was actually waving at them, motioning for them to come and join herself and the blonde. The same smug expression was still persistent on her face for a moment, until she noticed Naruto looking at her and then decided to replace it with a painfully obvious fake-innocent face as she pretended to be oblivious about the whole situation

"What?" She asked, playing clueless. _I'm sorry, Naruto... but I can't pass up this chance at getting to know more about you, now can I? It's your own fault for not telling me anything before,_ Tenten told herself.

"Humph." The blonde boy pouted, readying a speech about how he knew exactly what she was doing, and how he wouldn't have tolerated it if they were still working (or so he liked to think, at least). As he was about to tell her this however, the visitors had already arrived and cut him off before he even had a chance to get started.

"Hello Tenten! How are...." Either Ino or Sakura began - who it was he couldn't tell as he was busy trying to hide his face as much as it was possible. She, whoever it was, continued. "Ooh, who's this? You two wouldn't happen to be on a date, would you?" The question was obviously directed towards Tenten, but he could still literarily feel the gaze of two people burn through his back.

"No! No, of course not!" The older Chuunin defended herself, waving her arms in front of her. Her cheeks were flushed, however, and had they been able to see Naruto's cheeks, they would've noticed that his were as well. "He's my new captain."

"Oh yeah, you told us you were going to join." The other girl, who he by now was certain was Sakura, said. "You don't mind if we sit at your table, do you? All the smaller once are full..."

"No, of course I don't mind..." Tenten answered a little hastily, not allowing Naruto to object. He looked at her with an equally annoyed and helpless expression, while she just grinned back.

"Thanks. I'm Haruno Sakura," The pink-haired girl said, directed towards Naruto, as she sat down on the opposite side of him - next to Tenten. "That is Ino...-_pig_." She continued, the last part barely audible.

"What was _that_?" Ino growled as she sat down next to the blonde boy.

"Huh? What? Nothing..."

"Never mind pinky over there, she just likes to nag on people because of her defected forehead. I'm Yamanaka Ino, nice to meet you."

"My pleasure, Ino-san, Sakura-san." He said, for the first time looking them straight in the eyes.

Tenten smirked, waiting for the obvious reaction that was bound to come, at least from Sakura. However, no reaction of the sort Tenten had hoped for came.

_How can they not recognize him? Sakura was even his team mate_, she thought, looking over towards Naruto again. She noticed that something was different about him, but didn't know exactly what... _His face? Wait a minute, his cheeks_, it was then that she noticed; _his birthmarks?! They're gone! Genjutsu...? But, that's cheating!_

"So you're Tenten's captain? How old are you?" Ino asked.

"Seventeen." He admitted, although reluctantly. He didn't like to lie, simply hiding the truth felt better.

"Ah, then you're as old as us!" Ino squealed in delight. Suspicious delight. "And already an ANBU-captain? You must be pretty skilled! When did you join the ANBU?"

"When I was fourteen."

"Fourteen?! There's actually people joining at that age?" Sakura asked, baffled. Sasuke was supposed to be a genius, but he was no-where near the skill of an ANBU at age fourteen.

"There's records of Shinobi's becoming captains at age thirteen..."

"Oh..." Ino looked thoughtful for a moment. "So you're a Jounin?"

"Special-Jounin." Naruto was beginning to get slightly annoyed by all these questions. How did real geniuses, like Kakashi, stand all these questions? Naruto had never considered himself special in anyway, aside from a huge monstrosity imprisoned in his stomach, of course.

"I have to go, I promised a friend I'd spar with him today. Being stuck with a couple of students is boring him to death." He excused himself as soon as he had finished his food, or at least most of it. He left the extremely colourful '_thingies_' on the plate.

"But we just came, can't you stay a little longer?" Ino pleaded.

"Sorry, Ino-san. I'll see you tomorrow, Tenten. Same time, same place, but you probably know that." He grinned, leaving some money - what he estimated would enough to pay for his food but in reality was enough to pay for both him _and_ Tenten, and then left. Tenten and Ino looked disappointed about his rather abrupt disappearance, while Sakura looked a bit puzzled.

_He looked familiar, somehow... But I don't know where I could've seen him before_, Sakura thought, but decided to keep her thoughts to herself, convinced that she was imagining things.

"Tenten, you're lucky!" Ino said, being the first one to break the silence.

"I am? How?"

"He was cute! And he must be skilled too!" She said before leaning closer to the table, whispering conspiratorially "Perfect boyfriend-material."

Tenten merely rolled her eyes at the younger girl. "Then why don't you make a move on him yourself, Ino-pig?" Sakura asked.

"Aww, don't be so boring, forehead-girl! Besides, I might just do it." The blonde girl giggled.

:::

"Hey guys!" Naruto greeted as he walked into the clearing the training area that, informally, belonged to Konoha's genin Team Nine.

"Naruto-nii-san!" Konohamaru was the first one to reply, or rather shout. "Look, I've mastered the Goukakyuu no Jutsu last night, so you're gonna teach me a new one now!"

"I am? Well, let me see it first." The blonde-haired ANBU grinned.

"Ok!" Konohamaru said confidently, turned towards a near-by tree and, after doing the appropriate hand seals, shouted "Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

He took in a deep breath and let it out through the hole his thumb and index finger had created in front of his mouth. But instead of air, a roaring fireball shot out, turning the top half of the tree to cinders. After watching the result; a half burnt-down tree, Naruto saw that he hadn't mastered it completely yet. "Sorry kiddo, not yet. You don't concentrate enough, and you're not holding enough chakra in your lungs. Practice a bit more, and I'm sure you'll get it by tonight." He said, looking at Konohamaru who was now pouting.

"Well, I did warn you it was going to be tough to master... Now go join your friends and master the tree-walking. Better chakra-control allows you to master Jutsu's faster." He grinned.

"All right!" The brown-haired genin shouted as he turned around and darted off towards the tree where his team-mates were training.

"I didn't expect the three of them to still be here, Genma. Extra training for the Chuunin exam, huh?" He said, turning towards the Jounin-instructor.

"Indeed. Unlike a certain Shinobi I know, I want them to pass on their first try." He said, a smug smile forming on his lips.

"Bah! You know I would have passed on my first try too, if it wasn't for that stupid invasion. Especially the way I pummelled that Hyuuga."

"Sure you would." The older nin teased. He had to admit it, though not openly, that he had been impressed by that fight.

Seeing a twelve-year-old handle _that_ kind of power, power entitled to demons, wasn't something you saw everyday. It had shaken the whole village more than anyone really cared for. The one always considered a failure, a demon-spawn; came out victorious out of a fight everyone thought he had been destined to loose. While most ended up hating Naruto even more after that day, he had earned his respect from some of them.

"Sometimes I just want to shove that toothpick down your throat, or rather _up_ somewhere _else_, you know that?" The blonde grinned.

"How many times do I have to tell you, it's not a toothpick it's a---"

"---It's a senbon-needle, yeah yeah, I know." Naruto cut him off.

"Good. Why are you here, by the way? Shouldn't you be off training around now, as usual?"

"I was hoping to be able to train with you, since Jiraiya is off on some mission, and it'd be nice to spar with an equally skilled person for a change. But since you're busy, I'll get going."

"Feh. You're hopeless."

"You know I try." The young ANBU stuck out his tongue at the Jounin and disappeared in a flash.

:::

Thirty minutes after being rather abruptly left behind by a certain blonde ANBU-captain, Tenten now found herself making her way towards the house she lived in. It was bad enough that he had just left her there to face a never-ending supply of questions asked by Ino. Questions mostly about _him_. But to think they actually hadn't recognized him.

It was sad, and she found herself subconsciously furious on behalf of Naruto. Especially at Sakura. The pink-haired girl was _supposed_ to be his old team-mate. _Geez, why am I getting so worked up over this anyway? It's not like I care..._

As she got inside and closed the door, she heard her mom calling out to her. "Hi Dear."

"Hey mom. You're back already?" Tenten asked her mother. She had, along with her husband - Tenten's father, been on a b-ranked mission in a foreign village. They had been away for several days already, but weren't expected to be home until tomorrow.

"Yes, we came back earlier this afternoon. Are you hungry? I made dinner already, come and join me and your father in the kitchen and tell us all about your day, and what it's like in the ANBU."

"I'm not hungry, I just got back from a restaurant." Tenten said as she made her way into the kitchen and sat herself on one of the chairs, opposite to her father.

"Alone?" Her fathers baritone voice asked.

"No, together with my captain in the ANBU, Sakura and Ino." How would they react when they found out that Uzumaki Naruto was her captain? Did they hate him like everyone from the older generations seemed to do? She hadn't thought about that, but on the other hand, would it really be a problem? It wasn't her decision who her team-mates were anyway.

"Who are they? I mean your captain and team-mate..." Her mother asked, with the same curiosity that Tenten seemed to posses most of the time.

"My captain's name is Naruto and the 3rd memb---"

"---Naruto? The one that beat that Hyuuga in the Chuunin exam?" Her father asked, unsure of how to take the news. He had been there, all those years ago. He had lost many friends fighting Kyuubi until the fourth managed to seal the beast away into that poor boy.

He didn't feel any hatred towards Naruto himself, but did he trust him, and that _seal_, enough to let him take responsibility off his little girl? That was a completely different matter all together.

"Yes, what about it?" Tenten perked up. Maybe this was a good opportunity to get a clue or two on what the blonde could have done in the past...

"Erm... Nothing. He's captain in the ANBU already? It wasn't more than seventeen years ago that..." He tried to change the topic, to no avail. Silently cursing himself for letting his tongue slip, he tried to correct himself. "I mean, he can't be more than seventeen years old."

"Seventeen years ago, what?"

_Damnit..._

"Nothing." This time the word came from Tenten's mother instead. "I'm sorry honey, but we can't tell you."

"Why not?"

_What happened seventeen years ago?_ Tenten asked herself. Well, of course there was Kyuubi - she had heard about a demon attacking the village and killing many. But it was absurd to believe that Naruto had had anything to do with that. He quite possibly wasn't even born back then. No, there had to be something else.

"Why can't you tell me?"

Her father sighed deeply. He did not like the idea of _that kid_ being his daughters captain, but he had to admit the gaki was in a totally unfair situation. The unofficial rule imprinted on the people that prevented them from telling others about his special 'relationship' with Kyuubi might have been his only chance, and the boy deserved at least that much. But once people that had no idea what had happened to Kyuubi all those years ago grew suspicious of why he was treated the way he was, it began to create problems. What could one tell people that began asking questions? 'A rule says that I can't answer. A rule you shouldn't even know about.'?

There had to be a better way, but yet he came to the conclusion that there simply wasn't. And it was still better that she gave up this quest, since if she really _did_ find out, there was a chance that she wouldn't be able to trust him. His nearly 40 years of experience which he had gained through countless of battles and deceptions told him that a team without trust did not function.

"There's a rule. No one is allowed to speak of it." He finally said, ending the rather long silence.

"Oh." That was certainly not what she had expected to hear, and naturally it complicated things for her. Especially since she was still as hell bent as ever to find out the answer.

"If he himself, or Hokage-sama, decides you need to know, I guess they'll tell you. If not, there's not much we can do about it dear." Her mother added.

"Fine..." She reluctantly agreed and stood up, her chair screeching in protest as its legs were dragged backwards across the wooden floor. With a wave goodbye, she left her parents and slouched upstairs to her room, poised to think more about the new information she had gained.

:::

Naruto dropped himself wearily on the couch in his apartment after letting himself inside. He had been training all afternoon, the first couple of hours spent on perfecting a few techniques and, after the sun had set down behind the horizon, he spent another couple of hours running - in an effort to raise both stamina as well as speed.

Needless to say, he was extremely tired at this very moment.

His diminished thought-process presented him three options, right now. He could A; sleep now and eat ramen/shower as soon as he woke up. B; shower first, and then eat ramen before turning in for the night, or C; Eat ramen now and then shower after waking up tomorrow morning.

Of course, he could also improvise, he thought after trying to choose between the various options for a minute or two. He could eat ramen first, and then take a shower. Then, as he came out of the shower and got dressed, he could eat an additional cup of instant ramen! _Naruto! You're a genius!_ He praised himself, and with new-found strength managed to pluck himself off of the couch and move into the kitchen.

He prayed a silent prayer to the ramen-god, since there surely must exist one of those somewhere along the divine vault, and offered him his apologies for deserting him and his heavenly food earlier. Five minutes later, the blonde had cooked and devoured two cups of ramen and was now heading for the shower.

Just as he was about to enter the bathroom, several impatient knocks resounded through his apartment, coming from the front-door. After muttering curses to himself and asking who in their right mind would disturb him at this time of day, he had half a mind on just ignoring whoever was standing outside his home. He decided against it however, since he had a feeling it'd be important - it was rather late after all.

Three additional rapid knocks could be heard before Naruto had made it to the door.

"Ero-sensei," He greeted his visitor. "Shouldn't you be out peeking at poor defenceless ladies about now, you old pervert?"

"How many times haven't I told you _not_ to call me that? And for the last time, I'm not a pervert!" The tall white-haired man glared at his student.

"I know, I know..." The blonde yawned. "You're actually a super-pervert. A really lame one at that." Naruto said, before a particularly rusty gearwheel in his absent and tired mind shifted. "Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be on some mission?"

"I just got back from briefing Tsunade-hime."

"Uh-huh. And then you thought it'd be a good idea to come over here and bother me before I could get some sleep?"

"You could say that," The sannin grinned. "The real reason is that I wanted to give you some of the mission details." The white-haired nin continued with a serious voice, the tone of which told Naruto that this was going to be important. Further more, he also realized that it'd be a while until he would get an opportunity to sleep...

"Fine, come in." The blonde replied as he moved out of the way. "I'm going to get a shower first though." He said and moved towards the bathroom. The sannin positioned himself on the couch where he, once seated, took out a pen and a notebook and started scribbling down notes with a blush etched on his manic grin.

Ten minutes, and about five pages in Jiraiya's notebook later, Naruto emerged from the shower wearing casual clothes. He took a glance at his perverted sensei and muttered a curse. The white-haired sannin sat there without a worry in the world, occasionally nodding once or twice to himself and giggling before writing down another few lines. He decided that he would let the pervert be alone for an additional minute or two while he boiled water for his ramen, since he of course hadn't forgot about it. How could _anyone_ forget about ramen?

After boiling the water and adding it to two cups of instant ramen, Naruto now found himself propped on his couch right next to his sensei, desperately trying to get the white-haired sage's attention.

"Oi! Stop writing in that perverted notebook."

The sannin growled, obviously disappointed. "Fine."

"You're the one that wanted to talk to me in the first place..."

"Yes, I thought I might as well give you a personal briefing this time, seeing that you _fell asleep_ last time there was a public briefing."

"It's not my fault that the old hag was boring the hell out of me, is it?"

Jiraiya sighed. He, personally, didn't mind Naruto calling Tsunade a hag, although if it were anyone else, he probably would. Also, he knew better than to correct _the little baka_, since it didn't have any effect anyway. It reminded him a bit off his previous student, Yondaime.

"Anyway," Jiraiya started. "I've been doing a little, shall we say, spy-duty on the sound the last week. I think they're about to move soon. But from the look of it, they're going to try to round up some allies before they do. I know Orochimaru isn't dumb enough to try anything with their current army, anyway."

"What really troubles me is just _who_ those allies might really be. Sand is out of the question, he already tried that once - and they're not foolish enough to make the same mistake twice. No, he's not going for the Hidden Sand, which only leaves the Hidden Cloud and Stone powerful enough, and the Hidden Stone has no interest in our country at all." It was true. A more reclusive country than Earth, where Hidden Stone lay, was hard to find. They didn't care much about the outside world, and only liked to mind their own business. Hidden Stone had been involved in wars before, yes, but they had never started the wars themselves.

"If he finds any ally, it'll be the Hidden Cloud. We've been to war with them before, as you know, and they're just looking for a way to destroy Konoha. I also know that Tsunade-hime's brother was killed by the Cloud, something that would greatly satisfy Orochimaru's twisted humour." A long silence followed while Naruto took in everything he had just been told.

"So we're going to war?"

"No." Jiraiya said firmly. "Not yet, we still have time to stop it. We know for a fact that Orochimaru still hasn't contacted the Cloud, so he hasn't proposed a deal to them yet. Our spies that I contacted informed me that he's about to send a group of three people to Lightning Country. We need to stop them, preferably kill them, before they reach Hidden Cloud. Kabuto is probably one of the people that Orochimaru will send..." Naruto perked up immediately at the silver-haired Shinobi's name.

"I'll go." Naruto said flatly. Ever since he found out that Kabuto had been spy working for the enemy that day five years ago, he had wanted to settle the score between them. He was also aware of the fact that he was finally powerful enough to kill him. The blonde boy had never liked killing, but he felt that sometimes it was needed - possibly even justified.

"Hold your horses there, gaki. We don't even know for sure if Orochimaru even trusts Kabuto enough for that."

"He trusted him enough to spy at us, didn't he?" The blonde shot back.

_He's becoming sharper_, Jiraiya thought, an amused smile tugging at his lips. "Ok, fine. I know how important this if for you, Naruto, and I already talked to Tsunade-hime about it anyway. She said she'd think about it. That she'd possibly, _possibly_ allow your team to go, on the condition that you bring one more... experienced shinobi with you. A shinobi of her choice..."

"Thanks ero... I mean Sensei!" Naruto grinned mischievously while scratching the back of his head, sleep already forgotten. _Bringing someone experienced doesn't seem too bad. In fact, it doesn't seem bad at all_, he thought. If he only knew how much he'd regret thinking that...

:::

Two days later, Naruto found himself in full ANBU-fatigue together with the rest of his team on their usual meeting place, the bridge. It was a typical morning in the comfortable climate that Fire country found itself in this time of year. The sun graced everything with its divine light as it was rising just above the trees and the birds were chirping merrily to each other'svarious tunes.

Someone, however, wasn't as merry as the feathered beings.

"I swear that if you tell us that we're going to do nothing but train today as well, I'm going to..." Was the greeting Naruto received from his male team-mate. "Can't we have a normal mission today instead? You know, something that involves us doing something _else_ than training?" Iwashi continued.

Tenten, although silently, agreed. They had done nothing but running, sparring and perfecting techniques and chakra control these last two days, things she hoped she wouldn't see again after joining the ANBU. Where was the thrill, the action? Hell, patrolling was more fun than _this_.

"Hello, nice to see you too." Naruto said, before continuing. "Actually, we'll be leaving for a mission today. A, or maybe even S-class, in fact." He grinned profoundly beneath his mask. This would be fun.

"Really?" Tenten asked. Now this sounded interesting.

"Yes, that's why we've been training these last days. We're not going alone however, so we're just waiting for the temporary fourth member to come along - and after getting acquainted, we'll be leaving."

_Interesting indeed,_ Tenten thought, but couldn't help but to feel a tad bit nervous. She had done very few A-class missions before, and when she had, it had always been together with her old team and sensei. This mission she was going to do together with her new team, whom she had just known for a few days. Of course their teamwork had improved over the last two days of training, but it was still far from perfect. Not to mention, who was this new mystery shinobi that was going to accompany them? She decided to ask.

"I have not a single clue, to be honest. All I know is that he, or she, is supposed to have more experience than any of us. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. He's supposed to show up any minute now..." He said in a cheerful voice, scratching the back of his head.

Two hours of waiting later, just before Naruto was about to call the meeting off and search for the Hokage, he noticed two figures moving towards them from the edge of the forest. Squinting his eyes, he was able to make their identities, and didn't like it one bit. Actually, he almost felt furious.

Coming towards them in a slow pace was one silver-haired and one raven-haired Shinobi. The first of which wore a mask, and gave the term 'fashionably late' a whole new meaning.

"Copy Ninja" Hatake Kakashi together with his prize-student Uchiha Sasuke.

Naruto definitely didn't like this...

* * *

**  
Author's Note:**

I'm so evil! :D

Weee! Another chapter down! And WOAH! Reviews! I almost peed my pants after opening my mail-box the day after I released the last chapter and noticed that I had a humongous amount of reviews in it! The last chapter got more reviews than the first three chapters together, and that's quite an accomplishment, eh? I even passed the 100-mark, after only four chapters!! Go me!

Yeah, I know it's shorter than my usual chapters. I'm sorry for that, but this was only supposed to be some sort of filler-chapter anyway. Judging by the ending, I'm hoping you'll understand that there's hopefully gonna be a lot of action next chapter! Yay!

And yes, yet again, I'm sorry for the terribly long delay. If anything, I'm gonna blame school this time... Yeah.. for fucking up my daily rhythm and keeping me busy with a bunch of annoying stuff.

_Everyone in favour of burning down school, raise their hands._

Also, there is the question of how strong Naruto is in this fic. Some have been asking me if he's sannin/kage-level, and I can inform you that he is indeed not. Unless in an AU-world, or something interesting happening - like Naruto merging with Kyuubi, I cannot see a 17-year-old Naruto being at Kage-level. Yes, Itachi is 17 and he's at Kage-level, yes, but he was a genius growing up, he had a head-start. Naruto never was a genius.

In this fic, I picture him a bit stronger than Kakashi/Kabuto, and of course growing rapidly strength-wise. Not as weak as he would loose a fight versus one of them, but not so strong either that he would win without a scratch. I guess you'll find that out soon, though. :P

Yes, I am aware that this chapter feels rushed. I had a terribly hard time writing some of the scenes, actually, and it rubbed off of the quality. I'm sorry about that too - and I'm gonna blame school here as well.

As usual, I'd like to thank Erikkoekkoek for being.... well... what he is, I guess... dutch, annoying, slightly perverted and a damned good beta.

That's pretty much it, I reckon. On with the review-response! (I love this part :D)

**Erikkoekkoek**: Yeah, pretty much about time, me thinks... Well, 8 chapters in 2 weeks? Well, you got 1 chapter in 4 weeks, but that's just as good, isn't it? :D Thanks for reviewing and beta-ing and stuff... (asshole :P)

**Princess-Tsunade**: Woah, there... That's like a, 3 to 4 pages long review!! YIKES! :D I'm sorry that I don't have time to go over everything you said, since I'm in quite a hurry, but I believe I already talked to you about it over icq after I read your review the first time. Thanks a bunch for reviewing, your reviews are always the best :D I hope you enjoy this new chapter, too.

**Frank Cadena**: Thanks for the review... but well, Lee is pretty much all over the place though... He's in the prologue, the second and third chapter, I think... Well, you got 3 more of the old genins in this chapter! About the SakuNaru idea, yeah - guess I could've done that... But onesided inonaru is funnier, because Ino's character is just great to use that way.

**Max Knight**: Yes, his speed as increased, but I still think Naruto would be better - not faster, but overall better. Well, of course Naruto would lose if Lee opened the gates, but that's not gonna happen in a sparring match, I think.

**Kepelus**: Sorry about those mistakes, my beta usually goes over the chapter after I write them, and then I go over it alone again, but still there seems to be things that slip under our attention, so to say. Thanks for reviewing!

**Darren**: Read the Authors note about your question. Thanks for the compliments!

**Hattuteline**: Yah, I agree on most of your points. And I guess the NaruTen isn't concealed, but well, it isn't supposed to be either :P They're not going to fall head over heels with each other in just one chapter either, I already got some complications planned over the next chapter, hehe. Thanks for the compliments and for reviewing! It means a lot to me!

**Peradis**: Thanks for the compliments! Ah, yeah, I believe you should have received my reviews too, and I love your story. As I said in a review, I normally don't go for fics like that, but yours is awesome! When is the next update, though? :P I know I shouldn't be one to whine, since I'm the epitome of laziness, but I'm looking forward to an update! Yes, you should do an unusual pairing-fic! They're so much fun to write, you have no idea! Thanks a bunch for reviewing!

**Blazer6**: At some points, the sand-siblings will be in this fic, yes. And well, you'll just have to guess what will happen with Sasuke :P Thanks for the review!

**Alden-san**: You already got your ino-dosage, I think. Temari will definitely be in it sooner or later, and I guess our lazy friend will too. Yeah, I'm sticking to Lee as a comic-relief :P He's really funny to write, the scenes where he's in is some of my favorites... Thanks for reviewing!

**waat**: Thanks for being this weeks biggest comic relief, and weirdest moron yet. I guess I'll take your review as a compliment, though, and that death-threat? Hilarious! Actually, just so you know, I toppled over laughing the moment I read your review, which delayed the chapter further by a minute or two. Now that your 15-seconds of fame is over, I wish you all the good things this world has to offer (even a brain-cell or two, since you seem to be missing out on those...). Thanks for reviewing!

**BloodShinobi**: Thanks for reviewing, mate! Glad you liked it. And yes, unusual pairings are way more satisfying than most naruhina/saku ones (even though those are great too...).

**Calophi**: My own personal stalker! Weee, I always wanted one of those. I guess I really am the lucky one, eh? Thanks for reviewing!

**Xero-ghost**: Hehe, no problem :P. And yes, in some fics, Naruto are overly-powerful, and it's not even fun to read... I decided that he, unless something really drastic happens (read my authors note) can't be at kage-level at age seventeen. I'll try to add more area-description next time, just for you Thanks for reviewing, I appreciate it!

Big thanks also goes out to **One Azn Dragon**, **element4life**, **Gopu**, **skuld's Sentaru**, **panuru4u **(twice! :D lol, thanks!), **SilverMoonlight** (hey, you reviewed twice as well! Thanks!), **esanime**, **ghettomusick23**, **writer-golore**, **lazyboy**, **crutches**, **SilverNinjaHikaru**, **tenten**, **trickmaster**, **HellHound**, **Shippou-chan**, **Omnis Morganis**, **playgrrrllll**, **DaemonAvatar**, **Licht Sieger**, **AkiaBinZaid**, **swt-angel-babi3**, **Hanyou-Ria**, **AnGeL70**, **EfrainMan**, **davis4ever**, **evilmustardman**: Thanks for reviewing, all of you!

Well, I'll see you all (I hope) next time I update! :D Please keep reviewing!!! I LOVE REVIEWS! :D


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